TWENTIETH^CENTURY 
RURAL  SCHOOL 


E.  E  DAVIS 


THE  BOBB3-MERRILL  COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS 


TEXAS  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 

DISTRIBUTORS  FOR  TEXAS 
DALLAS,  TEXAS 


1924 


THE  TWENTIETH-CENTURY 
RURAL  SCHOOL 


The  Twentieth-Century 
Rural  School 


E.  E.  DAVIS,  M.A. 

Rural  Life  Specialist,  Department  of  Extension, 

University  of  Texas;   Editor  of  the  Rural 

School  Department  of  the  Texas 

School  Journal 

on 


INDIANAPOLIS 

THE  BOBBS-MERRILL  COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS 


Copyright  1920 
The  Bobbs-Merrill  Company 


3. 


PREFACE 

This  little  volume  has  been  prepared  for  county 
school  superintendents,  members  of  county  boards 
of  education,  progressive  rural  and  village  teachers, 
the  rural-school  sections  of  teachers'  institutes,  and 
for  classes  in  rural  education  in  the  state  normal 
schools.  Its  theme  is  the  relation  the  rural  school 
should  bear  to  the  life  and  interests  of  the  commu- 
nity. 

I  am  convinced  that  the  free  school  of  the  future 
must  hinge  more  on  the  community-service  idea. 
The  successful  teacher  in  the  centralized  rural  high 
school  of  the  twentieth  century  must  possess  the 
combined  abilities  of  "community  manager,"  "social 
engineer"  and  educator.  He  must  be  the  social  and 
industrial  light  as  well  as  the  intellectual  light  of  the 
people  he  serves. 

Many  teachers  have  left  the  profession  in  despair. 
But  I  am  not  ready  to  give  up.  I  am  firm  in  the 
belief  that  a  new  era  is  about  to  dawn.  There  is  still 
a  chance  for  men  and  women  of  ability  and  training 
who  know  how  to  make  their  ways  among  people 


PREFACE — Continued 
successfully  while  engaged  in  the  teaching  profes- 
sion. One  of  the  richest  opportunities  for  service 
and  for  attractive  pay  lies  in  our  best  rural  and  vil- 
lage communities.  It  is  an  opportunity  overlooked 
by  most  of  our  educators.  But  few  of  our  normal 
schools  have  ever  seen  it  clearly.  In  the  discussions 
that  follow,  I  have  tried  to  point  the  way  to  it. 

I  have  endeavored  to  make  this  treatise  as  elemen- 
tary and  concrete  as  possible,  taking  most  of  the  il- 
lustrations from  rural  and  village  schools  I  have 
taught  and  from  things  I  have  observed  among 
schools  taught  by  others.  I  have  tried  to  prepare 
it  from  the  view-point  of  the  country  teacher  facing 
actual  conditions  at  close  range  and  not  from  the 
view-point  of  the  college  man  interpreting  rural 
data  at  long  distance.  I  sincerely  hope  it  will  meet 
the  need  for  which  it  is  intended.  E.  E.  D. 


CONTENTS 


I  Some  Things  of  Concern  to  the  Observant 
Teacher  on  First  Arriving  in  the  Community  1 
The  Young  Man  Who  Never  Saw  the  Commu- 
nity Where  He  Was  to  Teach  till  the  Morning 
School  Began — Choosing  a  Boarding  Place — 
Getting  Acquainted  with  the  People — Identify- 
ing Gossips  and  Trouble-Makers — The  Relig- 
ious Situation — Recreation  in  the  Community — 
Taking  Inventory  of  the  Community's  Finances 
— Taking  Inventory  of  the  People. 

II  Diagnosing  the  Case  and  Applying  the  Remedy  23 
Most  Teachers  Are  Poor  Diagnosticians — How 
a  Four-Teacher  School  Got  a  Library  of  Six 
Hundred  Volumes — How  Five  Small  School 
Districts  Were  Consolidated  into  One  Large 
District — Great  Leadership  in  a  One-Teacher 
School — The  Supreme  Test  of  a  Community 
Leader. 

III  Getting  the  School  before  the  People      ...       43 

Painting  the  Old  Belfry— A  Beautiful  Play- 
ground— A  Babcock  Milk  Tester — The  Farm 
Terracing  Level — Arithmetic  Instruction  That 
Reaches  the  Home  —  Live-Stock  Judging  — 
Home  Projects — The  Community  Fair — School- 
Improvement  Day. 

IV  Some  Vitalizing  Educational  Agencies  and  Or- 
ganizations       62 

The  Boys'  School-Improvement  Club — The  Boy 
Scouts  —  Camp-Fire  Girls  —  The  Story-Teller's 
League — The  Young  People's  Reading  Circle — 
The  Interscholastic  League  —  The  Parent- 
Teacher's  Association — Other  Vitalizing  Activi- 
ties. 


X 


114/ 


CONTENTS— Continued 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

V     School  Playgrounds 77 

Playgrounds  and  Democracy — Playgrounds  and 
Juvenile  Delinquency — Playing  for  Sport  vs. 
Playing  to  Win  the  Game — Interscholastic  Ath- 
letics— Teachers  and  Parents  Not  in  Sympathy 
with  Athletic  Sports. 

VI     The  Social  Factor  in  Rural  Life 89 

The  Country  as  a  Victim  of  Inadequate  Social 
and  Cultural  Opportunities — The  Social  Factor 
as  a  Moral  Force — Beware  of  Moving  Country 
Children  to  Town  to  Live — The  Social  Factor 
as  a  Stimulus  to  Cooperation. 

VII     Making  Better  Citizens 102 

Teachers  of  Civics  Must  Get  a  New  Point  of 
View — The  Half-Patriotic  Citizen — Good  Citi- 
zens Must  Be  Thrifty  Citizens. 

VIII     The  Community  Idea  in  Public  Education  . 

The  Public  School's  New  Perspective — Redi- 
rected Instruction  in  the  Common  Subjects — 
The  School  Exists  for  People  of  All  Ages — 
The  New  School  Will  Have  a  New  Teacher — 
The  New  School  Will  Have  the  Moral  and 
Financial  Support  of  the  People. 

IX  Twentieth-Century  Salaries  for  Twentieth- 
Century  Teachers  in  Rural  and  Village  Com- 
munities      126 

A  Twentieth-Century  Village  Teacher  —  A 
Twentieth-Century  Country  Teacher  —  The 
Threefold  Function  of  Rural  and  Village 
Schools  in  the  Twentieth  Century — The  Funda- 
mental Reason  for  Starvation  Salaries  for 
Country  Teachers — An  Overlooked  Opportunity 
—  Our  Conservative  Institutions  of  Higher 
Learning — The  Ultimate  Remedy. 

X     School  Taxes  in  Country  Districts    ....     156 
Methods   of    Public   Appeal — The    School   as   a 
Business   Investment   for  the   Community — The 


/ 


X 


CONTENTS— Continued 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

Wealth  of  the  Community  Must  Support  Its 
Schools — The  Inherent  Fear  of  Taxation — Pov- 
erty a  State  of  Mind — Farm  Tenants  Show 
Little  Interest  in  School  Finances — Absentee 
Landlords  Object  to  School  Taxes — A  County- 
School  Tax. 

XI    Roads  and  Communication 181 

A  Village  School  That  Stood  for  Good  Roads 
— The  Chronic  Opponent  of  Public  Improve- 
ments —  Public  Roads  and  Public  Schools  — 
Transportation  of  Pupils  at  Public  Expense  at 
Harrisburg,  Texas. 

XII    The   Public   School   and  the   Health   of   the 

Community 193 

Country  Children  Are  Less  Healthy  Than  City 
Children  —  Small  Physical  Defects  Prevent 
Many  Children  from  Passing  Their  Grades — 
Better  Food  for  Farm  People  and  Farm  Ani- 
mals— Teaching  School  Children  the  Benefits  of 
Ventilation,  Deep  Breathing,  and  Outdoor 
Sleeping — Screens  for  Country  Schoolhouses 
and  Country  Homes — Bath  Tubs  and  Sanitary 
Outhouses  for  Country  Homes — Lessons  in 
Cleanliness.  . 

XIII  The  Rural-School  Museum        214  v 

How  the  Material  for  a  Museum  Was  Collected 
by  a  Country  Teacher — The  Use  of  the  Mu- 
seum— The  Essentials  of  a  Rural-School  Mu- 
seum. 

XIV  A  Standard  School 227 

What  Is  a  Standard  School? — Score-Card  for  a 
Country  School. 

XV  Larger  School  Units  in  the  Country  .  .  .  236 
The  One-Teacher  School — The  Poor  Atten- 
dance in  Small  Country  Schools — The  Cost  of 
Small  Schools — The  Meaning  of  Consolidation 
— A  Square  Deal  for  the  Country  Child — How 
to  Make  a  Consolidation. 


THE  TWENTIETH-CENTURY 
RURAL  SCHOOL 


The   Twentieth  -  Century 
Rural  School 

CHAPTER    I 

Some  Things  of  Concern  to  the  Observant 

Teacher  on  First  Arriving  in  the 

Community 

I.  The  Young  Man  Who  Never  Saw  the  Com- 
munity Where  He  Was  to  Teach  till  the  Morning 
School  Began. — Thirty  noisy  children  were  on  the 
playground  when  the  teacher  came.  Half  as  many 
were  romping  in  the  schoolhouse.  The  teacher, 
now  of  the  faculty  of  a  prominent  university  in  the 
South,  was  young  and  unaccustomed  to  respon- 
sibility. He  knew  little  about  the  affairs  of  life. 
He  knew  less  about  child  psychology  and  school 
management.  His  untrained  eyes  could  not  see 
community  needs  with  penetration  and  under- 
standing. His  equipment  for  the  profession  he  was 
entering  consisted  of  a  brass  hand  bell,  a  box  of 
crayon,  and  a  license  to  practise  teaching  on  a  cer- 
tificate of  inferior  grade. 

At  nine  o'clock  he  rang  his  bell.  It  was  the  first 
time  in  his  life  he  had  ever  rung  a  bell  clothed  with 


2       THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

all  the  authority  of  a  pedagogue.  He  rang  it  most 
vigorously.  The  children  came  scrambling  into  the 
house.  After  they  had  had  a  few  spirited  scuffles 
for  desirable  seats,  quiet  ensued.  Then  all  were 
curious  to  know  what  the  teacher  would  do  next. 
Just  what  that  would  be  he  himself  was  far  from 
sure.  His  face  was  feverish  with  embarrassment  and 
his  nerves  were  quavering  with  uncertainty.  Not 
knowing  what  else  to  do,  he  called  a  class.  Two 
minutes  later  he  dismissed  it  and  called  another. 
After  a  like  period  of  time  the  second  class  was  ex- 
cused and  a  third  one  called.  By  recess  he  had  heard 
all  the  classes  in  his  school  five  times  apiece.  Then, 
for  the  first  time,  it  came  to  his  disturbed  mind  that 
a  well-planned  daily  program  would  be  necessary  for 
the  successful  conduct  of  the  school.  And  while 
the  children  played  at  recess,  he  arranged  a  schedule 
of  classes  for  the  remainder  of  the  day.  Thus  he 
came  face  to  face  with  his  first  difficulty  in  a  path 
made  rugged  by  his  meager  preparation  and  short- 
ness of  practical  foresight. 

Those  were  great  days  for  that  young  teacher, 
but  hard  ones  on  the  pupils.  He  was  getting 
experience.  They  were  being  practised  on.  Both 
school  and  community  were  the  victims  of  his 
incompetency  that  entire  half-year.     He  could  not 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL      3 

anticipate  and  fortify  against  the  most  obvious 
emergencies  sure  to  arise  in  the  course  of  his  new 
duties.  For  instance,  he  engaged  board  in  the 
home  of  a  very  unpopular  man  disliked  by  most  of 
his  neighbors.  He  permitted  himself  to  be  swayed 
by  gossip  and  old  prejudices  brought  over  from 
family  feuds  of  former  years.  He  made  every 
man  and  woman  in  the  community  his  confidant. 
He  was  indiscreet  in  what  he  said  and  did.  He 
inaugurated  plays  and  games  at  school  not  at  all 
in  accord  with  the  tastes  and  accepted  proprieties 
of  most  of  the  people  he  had  come  to  serve.  He 
took  issue  with  all  who  did  not  believe  as  he  did, 
often  antagonizing  them  to  the  point  of  enmity. 
He  was  a  poor  judge  of  children  and  grown  people 
alike.  He  was  a  still  poorer  judge  of  community 
interests  and  needs,  and  was  pitiably  helpless  in  his 
impractical  attempts  to  meet  them. 

This  young  man,  uninformed  and  inexperienced, 
failed  in  most  that  he  undertook  that  year.  But  his 
abominable  failures  were  no  more  distressing  than 
many  made  to-day  by  teachers  of  far  greater  aca- 
demic culture  than  he.  True,  the  academic  attain- 
ments of  teachers  in  the  South  are  deplorably  lacking 
in  quality  and  degree.  But  more  deplorable  still  is 
the  fact  that  these  meager  academic  standards  are 


4      THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

about  the  only  standards  required.  Personality, 
representative  ability,  aptitude  for  handling  people, 
the  gifts  of  civic  and  social  adroitness,  and  ability 
to  live,  think  and  teach  in  terms  of  country  life  have 
been  given  but  little  weight  in  the  certification  of 
teachers.  For  that  reason,  I  have  deemed  it  ex- 
pedient to  set  forth  the  examples  of  successes, 
failures,  clever  devices,  unusual  foresight  and 
advanced  educational  practises  enumerated  in  this 
little  volume. 

2.  Choosing  a  Boarding  Place. — A  young  lady 
once  wrote  her  county  superintendent  thus :  "As 
you  know,  I  shall  be  principal  of  the  school  at  Viola 
this  year.  Where  is  the  best  place  for  me  to  live? 
First,  I  would  like  to  stay  with  the  most  influential 
family  in  school  affairs.  Second,  I  desire  a  com- 
fortable room  with  good  table  board,  and  other 
things  considered,  I  would  like  to  be  as  near  the 
schoolhouse  as  possible." 

Whether  a  home  with  the  most  influential 
family  in  the  community  should  be  placed  before  a 
comfortable  room  and  good  table  board  near  the 
school,  is  an  open  question.  But  this  much  is  sure. 
Many  teachers  have  come  to  failure  by  locating 
themselves  with  the  wrong  families,  and  many 
others  have  failed  because  of  uncomfortable  rooms 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL       5 

and  poor  food,  while  some  have  wrecked  their 
health  from  exposure  on  long  muddy  roads  to  and 
from  school. 

Much  depends  on  getting  in  the  right  family. 
Some  families  are  of  doubtful  morals ;  some 
are  gossip-mongers  and  mischief-makers;  some 
are  steeped  in  religious  fanaticism;  some  are 
anarchistic ;  some  are  contemptuously  snobbish ; 
some  have  histories  beclouded  with  whispered 
rumors  of  past  misdeeds;  some  are  misfits  in  the 
community;  some  are  inexplainably  unpopular. 
Unfortunate  is  the  teacher  who  engages  board  in  any 
of  these  homes.  She  makes  herself  a  target  for 
gossip,  and  throws  wide  a  chasm  of  chilly  aversion 
between  herself  and  patrons  from  the  very  begin- 
ning. It  is  far  better  that  she  investigate  her 
community  carefully  and  critically  before  procuring 
a  place  to  stay.  If  possible,  she  should  do  this 
before  school  opens.  Where  it  is  not  possible  to  go 
in  person,  inquiries  should  be  made  through  the 
county  superintendent  and  other  reliable  people. 

As  a  rule,  it  is  unwise  for  a  teacher  to  board 
with  a  trustee  if  as  good  accommodations  can  be 
had  at  some  other  place.  For  instance,  a  trustee 
in  a  small  village  boarded  the  seven  teachers  of  the 
public  school  faculty.     The  teachers  were  charged 


6      THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

with  pooling  their  influence*  with  this  trustee  to 
dominate  the  policies  of  the  school.  The  friction 
resulted  in  a  complete  change  of  teachers  and  trus- 
tees for  the  next  year.  Again,  three  teachers 
engaged  board  with  a  trustee.  They  found  his 
home  an  undesirable  place  to  stay  and  moved  within 
the  course  of  a  few  weeks.  This  incurred  the  ill 
will  of  him  and  his  family.  He  retaliated  by  cast- 
ing the  deciding  vote  in  the  school-board  meeting 
dismissing  the  janitor  and  requiring  the  teachers 
to  do  the  sweeping. 

3.  Getting  Acquainted  with  the  People. — 
The  spirit  of  friendliness  and  service  is  funda- 
mentally essential  to  the  teacher's  success.  No 
matter  how  sweet-spirited  and  philanthropic  the 
teacher  may  be,  she  can  not  succeed  and  live  apart 
from  the  world.  Altruism  requires  action,  and 
friendliness  can  not  thrive  without  exercise.  It 
takes  motion  to  make  them  useful.  Intimate 
acquaintance  and  abounding  sympathy  with  those 
with  whom  the  teacher  is  to  live  and  labor  are 
indispensable  to  her  success.  Teaching  school  is 
no  business  for  a  recluse. 

Academic  attainments  unaccompanied  by  social 
adaptability  are  almost  sure  to  make  a  poor  teacher. 
Failure  is  imminent  for  the  teacher  who  does  not 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL      J 

know  and  understand  her  constituents.  Intimate 
personal  acquaintance  should  extend  to  all  the  chil- 
dren of  school  age  and  to  the  parents  and  young 
people  not  in  school.  This  relationship  should  be 
established  early  in  the  school  year.  When  pos- 
sible, it  should  be  done  before  the  beginning  of 
school. 

The  teacher  with  foresight  and  practical  capacity 
seizes  upon  every  opportunity  for  meeting  and 
knowing  her  patrons.  Post-office,  drug-store, 
church,  bazaar,  farmer's  club,  school  festival,  and 
every  other  place  where  people  come  together  find 
her  there  with  that  warmth  of  fellowship  and  kindli- 
ness of  spirit  that  compel  respect  and  admiration 
from  all.  Furthermore,  if  her  heart  is  of  the  right 
sort,  she  actually  enjoys  meeting,  knowing  and  un- 
derstanding people  from  all  walks  and  stations  of 
life.  She  knows  and  understands  the  crude  and  the 
cultured,  the  blaze  and  the  plain,  the  democrat  and 
the  snob,  the  poor  and  the  rich,  the  poorly-clothed 
and  the  well-dressed,  the  modest  and  the  bold,  the 
underfed  and  the  well-rationed,  and  all  the  rest 
that  go  to  make  up  the  great  common  tribe  she  has 
elected  to  serve. 

But  not  all  teachers  meet  people  with  the 
same  degree  of  ease.     Some   have   affable   dispo- 


8      THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

sitions  and  magnetic  personalities.  They  enjoy 
social  contact.  Their  very  attitude  toward  life 
compels  friendliness.  All  who  know  them  like 
them.  Others  are  timid,  shy,  taciturn,  and  un- 
acquainted with  the  ways  of  the  world.  They  have 
neither  the  gift  nor  the  acquired  art  of  moving 
among  people  with  ease  and  assurance.  And  still 
another  group  is  unmindful  of  the  value  of  warm 
social  relationships  and  quite  indifferent  to  the  nor- 
mal feelings  and  reactions  of  the  many  human  souls 
about  them. 

But  whether  the  teacher  be  timid,  naturally 
stupid,  or  socially  alert,  the  need  for  knowing 
patrons  and  being  known  by  them  remains  the  same. 
On  that  account  some  enterprising  communities 
have  established  a  very  commendable  custom  of 
giving  a  neighborhood  party  in  honor  of  the 
teachers  just  before  the  beginning  of  school  each 
year.  These  parties  are  usually  held  at  the  school- 
house,  though  sometimes  they  are  held  at  the  home 
of  a  trustee  or  at  the  home  of  some  other  family  of 
good  influence  in  the  community.  Where  such 
social  gatherings  are  not  provided  for  by  estab- 
lished practise  the  teacher  should  improvise  some 
means  of  getting  the  people  together  just  for 
acquaintance's    sake.      A    Saturday    picnic    or    a 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL      O, 

Clean-Up-and-Beautification  Day  may  be  very 
appropriately  employed  for  getting  teachers  and 
patrons  to  meet  one  another  in  the  spirit  of  friend- 
liness and  cooperation. 

4.     Identifying  Gossips  and  Trouble-Makers 

Your  school  district  may  not  have  a  community 
gossip.  But  it  most  likely  does.  Most  com- 
munities have  such  human  nuisances.  Some  of 
them  are  harmless  though  ridiculously  amusing. 
Others  are  provocative  of  mischief  and  trouble. 
And  the  narrower  the  community's  interests,  the 
wider  and  deeper  is  the  stream  of  gossip  that  flows 
through  it. 

It  is  well  enough  for  the  teacher  to  know  which 
persons  are  afflicted  most  seriously  with  the  gos- 
siper's  habit.  Such  information  may  have  the 
value  of  an  insurance  policy  on  the  teacher's  official 
life,  for  nothing  can  weaken  one's  influence  more 
surely  or  end  one's  official  life  more  abruptly  and 
ignominiously  than  a  fetid  rumor  in  the  half- 
confidential  mouth  of  an  inveterate  tale-bearer. 
The  prudent  teacher  will  know  the  busybodies,  have 
them  under  constant  surveillance,  retain  their  good 
will,  and  keep  her  own  conduct  most  discreetly  forti- 
fied against  their  idle  tongues  and  damaging 
curiosity.     This  is  the  surest  way  of  living  among 


IO      THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

them  agreeably  and  getting  along  with  them 
successfully. 

Some  women  gossips  are  exceedingly  dangerous 
and  equally  as  difficult  to  deal  with.  There  is  no 
hate  so  deep  or  revenge  so  unmitigating  as  that  of 
an  ill-tempered  woman.  Among  the  qualifications 
of  the  persons  who  get  along  with  her  best  are 
patient  forbearance,  friendliness  for  all,  and  appar- 
ent unconcern  for  household  foibles,  community 
feuds,  and  the  telltale  prattle  of  talkative  people. 
But  men  gossips  are  much  easier  to  handle.  In 
fact,  the  management  of  a  trouble-making  man 
gossip  is  not  difficult  at  all,  if  he  is  dealt  with  in 
private  by  one  who  knows  how  to  be  frank  and  keep 
cool. 

For  instance,  a  community  had  been  in  an 
unsettled  condition  for  more  than  two  years.  Two 
teachers  had  abandoned  the  school  in  disgust.  A 
young  man  of  good  personality,  easy  manners  and 
calm  nerves  took  charge  at  the  beginning  of  the 
third  year.  He  soon  located  the  chief  mischief- 
maker.  It  was  no  other  than  a  man  of  considerable 
influence — a  deacon  in  the  church  and  a  former 
member  of  the  school  board.  He  was  on  hand  and 
made  a  short  talk  the  morning  school  opened.  He 
visited  the  school  three  times  that  week,  two  times 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL       II 

the  next,  and  twice  more  the  week  following.  On 
all  these  visits  his  one  subject  and  theme  of  con- 
versation was  the  community's  past  trouble.  He 
was  proud  of  his  expert  information  in  this  field. 
He  could  recite  family  histories  by  the  hour. 

But  on  Friday  afternoon  of  the  third  week  of 
school,  in  the  sunshine  on  the  west  side  of  the  school- 
house,  while  the  children  were  on  the  playground  at 
recess,  the  teacher  reluctantly  intimated  that  the 
unpleasantness  of  the  two  previous  years  was  of 
little  concern  to  him.  Then  his  informant  said : 
"Yes,  but  there  are  some  of  these  people  you  will 
have  to  watch.  They  will  bear  watching.  I  have 
known  them  all  these  years." 

"For  sure,"  said  the  young  man.  "I  am  watch- 
ing. It  is  my  duty  to  watch.  I  would  be  an  unworthy 
public  servant  if  I  did  not  watch.  I  am  watching 
every  pupil  and  every  patron  I  have  just  as  closely 
as  I  can.  But  do  you  know,  Mr.  Densmore,  /  am 
watching  you  closer  than  all  the  rest  of  this  com- 
munity put  together.  Now,  you  are  a  good  man 
and  I  like  you.  I  think  you  like  me.  And  we  are 
going  to  continue  to  like  each  other.  It's  our  best 
friends  who  tell  us  of  our  worst  faults.  And  I  tell 
you  kindly,  You  talk  too  much.  I  did  not  come  here 
to  contract  for  past  grievances.    I  came  here  to  teach 


12      THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

the  school  this  year.  And  if  you  will  just  cease  agi- 
tating old  troubles,  I  think  I  can  manage  things  here 
on  the  hill." 

That  school  was  taught  to  the  last  day  and  closed 
in  peace.  That  was  more  than  a  dozen  years  ago. 
These  two  persons  are  still  good  friends  and 
have  been  all  the  time.  This  incident  that  passed 
off  tranquilly  in  private  would  have  precipitated  a 
bout  or  a  brawl,  making  food  for  still  more  gossip, 
had  it  occurred  in  public.  The  public  never  did 
learn  about  it.  The  teacher  did  not  tell  it.  Mr. 
Densmore  could  not  afford  to  tell  it. 

On  coming  into  a  strange  community,  teachers 
are  sometimes  unconsciously  swayed  and  biased  by 
reports  of  the  incorrigibility  of  certain  pupils,  the 
uncanny  manners  of  this  family,  the  extreme 
unpopularity  of  that  one,  and  the  like.  For  in- 
stance, a  girl  of  fine  ability  and  strong  determination 
had  helped  her  mother  chastise  her  drunken  father, 
had  thrashed  an  impudent  tramp  with  a  garden  rake, 
and  had  told  a  blushing  young  teacher  that  he 
should  be  dismissed  for  incompetency.  She  was 
the  talk  of  the  village.  The  teachers  for  the 
ensuing  year  heard  of  her  and  feared  her  long  before 
they  ever  saw  her.  She  was  summarily  expelled 
from    school   by    the    erratic    young    principal    on 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL       1 3 

an  unwarranted  pretext  at  the  end  of  the  first 
week.  She  entered  school  elsewhere.  Five  years 
later  she  graduated  from  the  college  in  a  class  with 
this  very  young  principal  who  had  inflicted  upon 
her  the  injustice  and  disgrace  of  expulsion  from  the 
public  school. 

An  unverified  report  can  easily  be  parent  to  a 
false  impression.  Teachers  are  often  swayed  by 
groundless  rumors.  In  this  way  wrong  opinions 
concerning  certain  pupils,  families  and  individuals 
quite  commonly  lead  to  subsequent  injustices. 
Therein  consists  the  greatest  danger  of  rumor. 

5.  The  Religious  Situation — Religious  jeal- 
ousy has  not  yet  been  refined  out  of  the  hearts  of 
men.  Interdenominational  animosities  still  bring 
disgrace  upon  the  sublime  concept  of  the  Christian 
brotherhood  of  mankind.  Envious  and  suspicious 
intolerance  still  exists  among  Baptists,  Methodists, 
Catholics,  Lutherans  and  Campbellites  in  some 
benighted  localities.  The  old-time  proselyting  and 
religious  debating  in  public,  once  so  productive  of 
bitter  dissension,  have  just  about  passed  away. 
But  recruiting  agents  are  still  active  for  every  con- 
gregation, and  the  new  school-teacher  seldom 
escapes  their  inquiries  and  solicitations.  Indeed, 
some  preachers  look  upon  the  public  school  as  a 


14      THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

fertile  source  for  choir  and  Sunday-school  talent 
and  seek  to  influence  the  election  of  teachers  with 
that  end  in  view.  For  instance,  last  year  I  saw  a 
man  elected  to  the  superintendency  of  the  public 
schools  in  a  town  of  five  thousand  population  simply 
because  his  wife  could  sing  in  a  certain  church  choir 
and  the  wives  of  the  other  seven  applicants  were  not 
thus  qualified.  The  pastor  of  that  particular  church 
controlled  two  votes  on  the  school  board.  Just  five 
months  ago  a  new  board  declined  to  reelect  that 
superintendent  for  the  present  year. 

Church  ambitions  and  religious  dissensions  often 
creep  into  the  schools  of  our  villages  and  small 
towns.  They  occur  less  commonly  in  the  country, 
though  the  country  is  by  no  means  free  from  them. 
Yet  where  they  do  make  their  appearance  in  the 
country,  they  are  usually  in  their  most  violent  form. 
The  bitterest  religious  enmity  I  have  ever  witnessed 
has  been  in  backward  rural  centers.  Yet,  all  this 
does  not  mean  that  desertion  of  the  church  is 
essential  to  a  teacher's  success.  Far  from  it, 
even  in  the  most  intolerant  community.  But  it 
does  mean  with  double  emphasis  that  the  successful 
teacher  in  a  community  rent  with  religious  dis- 
sension must  be  tolerant,  eternally  vigilant,  and 
have  the  bigness  of  character  and  those  qualities  of 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL       1 5 

resourcefulness  and  adroitness  that  enable  one  to 
stand  out  above  petty  squeamishness,  avoid  scrip- 
tural arguments,  and  keep  aloof  from  church 
differences  without  giving  offense  to  any  one. 

6.  Recreation  in  the  Community. — Recreation 
in  many  country  districts  is  in  a  state  of  chaos. 
Social  desires  are  ignored  and  unprovided  for. 
The  social  instincts  run  riot  like  weeds  in  an 
untenanted  meadow.  In  six  contiguous  commu- 
nities in  a  prosperous  farming  district  these  were 
some  of  the  answers  as  to  how  the  people  spent  their 
Sundays:  "Roaming  over  the  country,"  "Visiting 
and  loafing,"  "Wandering  aimlessly  about,"  "Sleep- 
ing and  resting,"  "Dancing  at  the  German  Hall," 
"At  church  and  Sunday-school." 

Wholesome,  well-unified  recreational  activities 
lessen  the  difficulties  of  school  discipline.  The 
attitude  of  the  pupils  in  the  school-room  reflects  to 
a  very  considerable  degree  what  takes  place  during 
their  hours  of  leisure  after  school  and  on  holidays. 
The  adept  disciplinarian  will  be  vigilantly  cognizant 
of  the  values  or  the  disadvantages  of  every  social 
resort  her  pupils  frequent  and  every  recreational 
function  they  attend.  Every  community,  no  mat- 
ter how  dejected,  has  its  social  centers — pool  hall, 
dance    pavilion,    barber-shop,    country    store,    post- 


l6      THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

office,  cotton-gin,  garage,  drug-store,  or  street  cor- 
ner— where  certain  gangs  and  groups  of  its  popula- 
tion congregate  for  gregarious  pastime.  And  these 
resorts  will  not  escape  the  eye  of  the  teacher  with 
keen  vision  for  observing  human  conduct.  They 
will  be  noted  and  correctly  evaluated  in  the  early 
weeks  of  school.  If  the  teacher  be  a  practical 
social-welfare  worker — and  every  rural  teacher  and 
rural  preacher  should  be — she  will  be  deeply  con- 
cerned with  remedial  measures  for  their  improve- 
ment and  correction. 

A  few  years  ago  I  was  highly  gratified  with 
some  observations  in  a  village  of  six  hundred  people. 
The  local  pastor  was  a  retired  teacher,  a  man  of 
good  ability,  and  a  natural  leader  of  people.  When 
he  took  the  pastorate  in  this  village,  there  were  some 
boys'  congregating  centers  that  were  breeders  of 
idleness  and  baseness.  He  wished  to  combat  them. 
He  fortified  the  battlements  of  his  church  for  that 
purpose,  and  a  crusade  of  competition  and  peaceful 
conquest  was  begun  against  these  recreational 
strongholds.  One  by  one  they  fell.  They  could 
not  withstand  the  wholesome  competition  of  the  new 
club  rooms  for  boys  and  girls  on  the  church  prop- 
erty. And  the  membership  of  that  church  steadily 
increased  from  a  few  score  to  nearly  five  hundred. 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL       1 7 

Play  and  social  inclinations  are  as  natural  as  life 
itself.  For  the  church  to  forbid  its  young  people 
to  engage  in  certain  amusements  without  providing 
other  and  better  recreations  to  take  their  places  is  a 
rebuke  to  the  sanity  of  its  membership  and  a  self- 
inflicted  blow  at  its  own  ultimate  existence.  Yet 
there  are  those  in  the  ecclesiastical  camps  who 
would  limit  the  functions  of  the  church  to  things 
purely  spiritual,  just  as  there  are  those  in  the  peda- 
gogical ranks  who  would  limit  the  entire  work  of  the 
school  to  things  intellectual  and  cultural.  The 
cheap  commercialized  show,  the  vaudeville,  and  the 
questionable  amusement  park  continue  to  flourish 
because  the  churches  and  the  schools  do  not  com- 
pete with  them  with  cleaner  and  more  profitable 
pastime.  The  amusement-seeking  public  accepts 
them  because  it  has  no  other  alternative,  just  as  a 
man  lost  in  the  woods  will  alleviate  his  thirst  with 
stagnant  water  rather  than  perish.  Social  hunger  is 
almost  as  impelling  as  the  craving  for  food. 

7.  Taking  Inventory  of  the  Community's 
Finances. — Before  contracting  for  your  school  did 
you  ask  your  trustees  these  questions :  What  is  the 
local  school  tax  rate?  What  is  the  total  amount  of 
taxable  wealth  in  the  district?  How  much  avail- 
able school  revenue  does  it  produce? 


l8      THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

Finances  constitute  the  bone,  and  desire  for 
enlightenment  makes  up  the  muscle  and  nerve,  of  the 
school  system.  Without  proper  financial  support 
the  school  must  be  left  prone  and  helpless.  The 
wide-awake  teacher  will  look  over  a  prospective 
location  with  the  eyes  of  a  business  man.  He  will 
make  an  approximate  inventory  of  the  community's 
tangible  assets — railroads,  pipe-lines,  sawmills,  brick- 
yards, farms,  dairies,  etc. — and  learn  if  the  school 
taxes  are  regularly  paid  on  all  of  them.  He  will 
know  if  the  annual  income  measures  up  to  the 
budget  of  a  school  such  as  he  would  care  to  teach. 
And  he  will  not  be  blind  to  such  artificially  imposed 
conditions  as  farm  tenancy  and  absentee  land- 
lordism, so  menacing  to  school  finances  in  many  of 
the  wealthiest  agricultural  counties  in  the  South. 

I  know  a  few  teachers  who  are  fifty  years  ahead 
of  the  times.  They  have  seen  the  light  of  a  new 
day.  Some  of  them  mean  to  make  rural  education 
their  life-work.  They  will  succeed  in  that  capacity. 
But  success  will  come  easiest  and  surest  to  those 
who  use  the  best  judgment  in  choosing  places  to 
work.  The  most  attractive  of  all  communities  is 
that  one  with  a  homogeneous,  home-owning  pop- 
ulation, financially  able  and  morally  willing  to 
support  its  free  schools.  These  are  the  places  that 
attract  and  hold  the  best  teachers. 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL       IO, 

8.  Taking  Inventory  of  the  People. — I  know  a 
community  where  the  white  population  is  composed 
of  about  equal  numbers  of  Mexicans,  Bohemians, 
Swedes,  Germans  and  Americans.  The  human 
element  in  this  community  is  all  out  of  harmony 
with  itself.  The  people  are  separated  into  small 
clannish  groups  by  the  barriers  that  the  differences 
in  race,  language,  custom  and  traditions  have  set  up. 
Their  ideals  and  interests  in  life  constitute  an 
ill-shaped,  heterogeneous  mass  quite  devoid  of  coher- 
ence and  unity.  It  is  poor  soil  for  the  seeds  of 
public  enterprise.  School  spirit  seldom  thrives  in 
it.  The  biggest  problem  in  a  community  of  that 
sort  is  that  of  amalgamation  and  Americanization. 
The  hope  for  its  solution  rests  with  the  younger 
generation.  Young  men  should  be  encouraged  to 
accept  places  on  the  school  board  and  take  the  lead 
in  public  affairs. 

In  taking  inventory  of  the  human  assets  in  any 
school  district  the  appraiser  should  be  keenly 
watchful  for  evidences  of  special  talent  and  the  gift 
of  natural  leadership.  He  should  identify  a  corps 
of  potential  lieutenants  for  assisting  in  the  conduct 
of  school  and  community  activities.  And,  having 
successfully  identified  them,  no  time  should  be  lost 
in  pressing  them  into  service  according  to  their 
respective   capacities :   Boy    Scout   Master,    baseball 


20       THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

captain  and  athletic  coach,  literary  society  president, 
secretary  of  the  reading  circle,  dramatic  club  leader, 
music  director,  and  the  like. 

The  teacher  has  taken  a  long-  step  toward  success 
when  he  learns  how  to  delegate  responsibility  suc- 
cessfully. There  are  plenty  of  capable  laymen 
who  are  quite  willing  to  help  the  teacher  carry  his 
burden  of  responsibility  when  properly  encouraged 
to  do  so.  The  pastor  of  the  village  church,  men- 
tioned in  a  previous  paragraph,  is  the  school's  most 
valuable  human  adjunct.  There  are  those  in  other 
walks  of  life  who  are  just  as  able  as  he,  but  their 
talents  are  lying  dormant  because  no  one  has  sought 
to  stimulate  them  into  activity. 

In  a  certain  rural  district  I  know  an  unassuming 
nurseryman  and  gardener  of  no  mean  ability.  He 
is  one  of  the  best  informed  practical  horticulturists 
of  my  entire  acquaintance.  But  the  school  did  not 
discover  him  until  recently.  Now  he  meets  the  class 
in  elementary  agriculture  once  a  week  and  con- 
tributes his  time  and  talent  most  willingly.  There 
are  doctors,  dairymen,  poultry  raisers  and  swine 
breeders  all  over  the  country  who  would  cooperate 
with  the  school  just  as  closely  as  this  man  does  if 
the  teachers  would  only  find  them  and  enlist  their 
assistance  in  the  right  way. 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL       21 

THOUGHT   QUESTIONS 

i.  Is  it  as  essential  that  the  teacher  be  in  the  com- 
munity for  a  week  before  school  begins  as  it  is  that  she 
be  on  the  school  grounds  for  one-half  hour  before 
school  opens  each  morning? 

2.  Give  reasons  why  it  is  sometimes  not  best  for  a 
teacher  to  board  in  the  home  of  a  trustee. 

3.  Can  a  person  without  the  gift  of  friendliness  and 
social  magnetism  succeed  as  a  country  school- 
teacher? Can  the  qualities  of  friendliness  and 
sociability  be  cultivated  and  acquired  by  one  not 
possessing  them  as  native  gifts?  Why  should  the 
teacher's  acquaintance  extend  to  all  the  people  in  the 
community?  Why  should  the  teacher  know  and 
understand  people  from  the  humblest  to  the  most 
exalted  stations  of  life?  Some  people  with  magnan- 
imous hearts  and  deep  sympathies  have  true  affections 
for  the  whole  of  mankind.  Others  are  apparently 
friendly  and  sympathetic,  but  at  heart  are  altogether 
insincere.  To  which  class  do  you  belong?  Are  you 
really  democratic,  or  do  you  merely  pose  as  a  demo- 
crat? Name  some  values  that  studying  people  at  first 
hand  and  living  sympathetically  among  them  have  over 
reading  books  about  them. 

4.  Why  is  a  community  with  narrow  interests  so 
likely  to  be  contaminated  with  poisonous  gossip?  Why 
is  gossip  more  intense  in  small  towns  than  In  large 
cities?  It  has  been  said  that  persons  of  education  and 
culture  are  less  given  to  gossip  than  the  poorly 
informed,  because  small  and  worthless  thoughts  are 
crowded  out  of  their  minds  with  larger  useful  ones. 
To  which  of  these  classes  do  you  belong? 


22       THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

5.  Were  you  elected  to  your  present  position 
because  you  are  a  Baptist  or  a  Methodist,  or  because 
you  are  a  capable  teacher?  Is  there  social  and 
religious  harmony  in  your  community? 

6.  Is  there  any  form  of  organized  social  recreation 
for  the  young  people  where  you  are  to  teach  this  year  ? 
Where  is  the  community's  social  center?  Do  the  boys 
meet  at  barber-shops,  pool  halls,  or  other  places  for 
conversational  intercourse  and  passive  amusement? 
Do  the  young  people  go  away  to  town  for  their 
amusement?     If  so,  why? 

7.  Of  what  does  the  taxable  property  consist  in  the 
district  where  you  are  to  teach  this  year :  farms,  live 
stock,  railroads,  pipe-lines,  etc.  ?  What  is  the  total 
property  value  of  the  district?  What  per  cent,  of  the 
people  own  their  homes  ?  What  per  cent,  are  tenants  p 
Are  there  any  absentee  landlords?  Are  they  active 
friends  of  public  education? 

8.  What  is  the  predominant  nationality  of  the 
people  in  your  school  district?  Do  they  all  speak  the 
English  language?  Are  they  socially  homogeneous? 
Is  there  any  one  local  interest — club,  church  or  busi- 
ness organization — in  which  the  majority  of  them  take 
an  active  part  ? 


CHAPTER  II 
Diagnosing  the  Case  and  Applying  the  Remedy 

i.     Most  Teachers  Are  Poor  Diagnosticians — 

The  doctor  ascertains  the  nature  of  the  patient's 
malady  before  prescribing  a  remedy.  He  feels  the 
pulse,  takes  the  temperature,  notes  the  complexion 
and  then  decides  upon  the  treatment.  He  treats 
each  case  according  to  its  needs.  The  remedy  for 
smallpox  will  not  cure  tonsilitis.  The  curative  arts 
must  fail  in  their  usefulness  when  improperly 
applied.  There  are  many  doctors  and  teachers 
familiar  with  numerous  valuable  remedies  they  can 
not  put  into  successful  practise.  They  are  failures 
in  their  professions  because  they  can  not  make  a 
correct  diagnosis. 

Rural  and  village  teachers  are  especially  weak 
in  the  art  of  diagnosing  community  affairs.  It  is  a 
thing  they  have  never  been  taught  to  do.  Until 
quite  recently  our  normal  schools  and  colleges  have 
never  taken  the  question  of  community  leadership 
very  seriously.  Even  now,  rural-life  courses  are  by 
no  means  receiving  the  support  they  should. 

Too  many  teachers  gaze  upon  community  prob- 
lems and  never  see  them.     They  can  not  interpret 

23 


24       THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

the  social  data  spread  out  before  their  eyes.  The 
four  walls  of  the  school-room  mark  the  limits  of 
their  vision.  Indeed,  it  did  not  dawn  upon  the 
present  writer  for  five  long  years  after  he  had  taught 
his  first  country  school  that  he  had  overlooked  two 
very  definite  community  problems  that  he  should 
have  seen  and  have  solved.  He  failed  to  diagnose 
the  case  committed  to  his  care.  Worse  still,  he  did 
not  even  discover  that  the  patient  was  sick. 

The  diagnosis  of  a  case  of  measles  is  no  difficult 
matter.  The  symptoms  are  easy  to  detect.  The 
examination  is  purely  physical.  But  the  case  of  a 
sick  community  is  much  more  complex.  It  is  both 
physical  and  psychical.  The  traditions,  lan- 
guage, feelings  and  sensibilities  of  the  people  must 
be  taken  into  account  along  with  the  community's 
physical  needs.  I  sometimes  think  that  there  are  no 
people  on  earth  so  sensitive  as  country  people.  And 
as  a  rule,  the  farther  removed  they  are  from  the 
centers  of  culture,  the  more  sensitive  you  find  them. 
Yet,  when  properly  understood  and  properly  ap- 
proached, there  are  no  people  more  responsive  to 
capable  leadership  than  country  people. 

Just  here  I  wish  to  cite  some  instances  where 
rural  teachers  have  shown  marked  ability  as  com- 
munitv  leaders: 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL       25 

2.  How  a  Four-Teacher  School  Got  a  Library 
of  Six  Hundred  Volumes — Five  years  ago  a  young 
man  with  a  commanding  personality,  an  abundance 
of  common  sense  and  a  twentieth-century  concep- 
tion of  the  function  of  a  free  school  in  a  country 
district  was  employed  as  principal  of  a  rural  school. 
Three  women  teachers  were  employed  to  assist  him. 
School  opened  on  the  first  Monday  in  October,  and 
the  first  three  weeks  passed  quietly.  On  the  third 
Friday  afternoon  the  four  teachers  remained  after 
school  for  a  faculty  conference.  The  social  status 
of  the  community  and  the  needs  of  the  school  were 
discussed  at  length.  A  program  of  school  improve- 
ment for  the  year  was  decided  upon.  A  new  library 
for  the  school  was  included  in  this  program. 

But  the  program  of  improvement  decided  upon 
in  this  small  faculty  meeting  was  not  given  house- 
top publicity.  Sometimes  publicity  is  a  great 
stimulus  to  community  action  and  a  legitimate 
instrument  for  the  teacher  to  use  in  promoting 
educational  enthusiasm.  But  in  other  instances  it  will 
defeat  the  very  ends  it  is  intended  to  promote.  In 
this  particular  instance,  the  teachers  thought  best 
to  conduct  the  campaign  quietly  and  diplomatically. 
So  they  very  tactfully  set  about  educating  their 
pupils  and  patrons  to  want  better  things  in  the  way 


26      THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

of  school  equipment.  But  the  new  library  was  not 
mentioned,  neither  were  the  playground  apparatus 
and  the  equipment  for  the  laboratories. 

The  next  week  the  pupils  in  school  were  required 
to  write  their  parents  urgent  invitations  to  come  to 
the  schoolhouse  the  following  Friday  night.  Just 
why  they  should  be  invited  to  the  schoolhouse  at 
that  time  was  kept  in  mystery.  The  very  mystery  of 
the  scheme  caused  the  people  to  come.  More  than 
three  hundred  people-  were  present.  The  teachers 
had  quietly  and  secretly  prepared  for  their  reception 
and  entertainment.  The  children  below  twelve  years 
of  age  were  received  by  one  of  the  women  teachers 
and  the  secretary  of  the  mothers'  club.  The  children 
from  twelve  to  sixteen  years  old  were  entertained 
by  a  committee  appointed  for  that  purpose.  The 
grown  young  people  of  the  school  and  community 
were  the  guests  of  the  principal  of  the  school.  The 
parents  were  provided  for  by  the  local  pastor  and 
the  county  farm  demonstrator. 

After  more  than  an  hour  of  merriment,  instruc- 
tion and  entertainment,  these  sectional  meetings 
adjourned  and  all  the  people  came  together  in  the 
auditorium.  Some  light  refreshments  were  served 
and  all  had  an  informal  good  time  together  for 
another  hour.      Then  the  meeting  was  adjourned 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL      27 

and  the  people  went  home.  But  that  was  not  all. 
The  after  effects  still  lingered  in  their  nerves. 
Deep  down  in  its  heart  that  community  felt  better 
at  the  close  of  this  meeting  than  it  had  ever  felt  in 
its  previous  history.  That  was  the  first  step  toward 
the  new  library  and  improved  playground. 

The  meeting  had  the  desired  effect.  A  week 
later  the  community  was  asking  that  it  be  repeated. 
A  second  meeting  was  held  two  weeks  from  the 
time  of  the  first  one.  But  the  program  of  school 
improvement  that  the  teachers  had  in  mind  was  not 
mentioned  on  either  occasion. 

A  third  meeting  was  held.  At  the  third  meet- 
ing, in  the  young  peoples'  section,  the  seeds  were 
sown  that  ultimately  germinated  and  matured  into 
the  library.  It  was  done  in  this  manner:  At  the 
proper  time  the  principal  said,  "How  many  present 
would  like  to  meet  here  regularly  on  the  second  and 
the  fourth  Friday  nights  of  each  month  in  the 
capacity  of  a  young  people's  reading  circle?"  The 
suggestion  was  readily  accepted  by  all.  Then  he 
assigned  Tennyson's  "Locksley  Hall"  for  the  first 
reading  lesson.  He  told  me  that  he  assigned 
"Locksley  Hall"  because  he  did  not  think  there  was 
a  single  copy  of  Tennyson's  poems  in  the  community. 

It  was  further  agreed  in  a  most  cheerful  manner 


28       THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

that  all  who  failed  to  read  the  assignment  by  the 
time  of  the  next  meeting  should  be  assessed  a  fine 
of  one  dollar  to  be  paid  into  the  treasury  of  the 
society  for  the  purchase  of  new  books.  Much  to 
the  surprise  of  the  principal,  two  copies  of  Tenny- 
son's poems  were  found  in  the  community.  But 
when  the  time  for  the  meeting  came,  twenty-three 
of  the  twenty-nine  young  people  present  had  not 
read  the  assignment.  Twenty-three  dollars  were 
promptly  and  cheerfully  contributed  in  penalties,  and 
that  amount  was  supplemented  by  a  general  contri- 
bution of  twelve  more  dollars,  making  a  total  of 
thirty-five  dollars.  The  following  week  the  club 
was  presented  with  a  complete  set  of  O.  Henry's 
books,  and  three  months  later  the  campaign  was 
formally  launched  for  a  fund  to  provide  a  library  to 
meet  the  needs  of  that  school  and  community. 

The  incidents  leading  up  to  the  final  consum- 
mation of  this  library  plan  are  too  numerous  to  re- 
late.    1  shall  mention  only  one  of  them. 

The  principal  said :  "The  greatest  obstacle  in  the 
path  leading  to  the  installation  of  the  library  was  our 
mothers'  club.  The  mothers'  .club,  though  a  useful 
and  an  almost  indispensable  organization  in  a  school 
community,  sometimes  becomes  a  clog  in  the 
machinery  of  school  affairs  if  it  is  not  managed  very 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL       20, 

carefully.  But  don't  you  know,  it  is  the  easiest 
thing  in  the  world  to  manage  if  you  go  at  it  in  the 
right  way.  I  handle  my  mothers'  club  just  as  I 
handle  a  bad  boy.  Assign  the  mothers  some  defi- 
nite piece  of  work  to  do,  and  you  have  the  difficulty 
solved.  So  I  knew  the  mothers  would  want  to 
assist  in  procuring  the  library.  But  I  thought  my 
teachers  and  I  could  install  a  better  library  for  this 
school  and  community  without  their  assistance  than 
with  it.  So,  while  we  were  quietly,  patiently  and 
tactfully  educating  these  young  people  to  want 
more  books  and  better  books  to  read,  the  mothers 
were  doing  something  else.  They  were  kept  busy 
installing  the  seesaws,  swings,  giant  strides,  hurdles 
and  tennis  courts  you  see  on  our  playgrounds." 

3.  How  Five  Small  School  Districts  Were 
Consolidated  Into  One  Large  District. — Three 
years  ago  a  young  man,  just  out  of  college,  con- 
tracted to  teach  a  two-teacher  school  in  the  extreme 
smith  end  of  a  certain  Texas  county.  A  natural 
geographic  unit  in  that  part  of  the  county  was 
divided  into  five  small  school  districts.  In  a  private 
interview  with  the  county  superintendent  three 
weeks  after  school  began  this  young  man  proposed 
a  plan  for  the  consolidation  of  these  five  districts. 
"It  will  never  do;  it  is  impossible;  those  people  are 


30      THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

all  cross  with  one  another ;  the  very  attempt  will 
mean  your  undoing,"  said  the  superintendent.  But 
the  young  man  was  persistent  in  his  belief  that  the 
idea  was  feasible  and  practicable,  and  he  had  perfect 
confidence  in  his  ability  to  see  it  through  to  a  suc- 
cessful finish.  He  said :  "Just  turn  the  whole  thing- 
over  to  me.  I  think  I  can  handle  it."  He  was 
anxious  for  the  responsibility,  and  the  county  super- 
intendent, who  was  equally  well  pleased  to  be  re- 
lieved of  it,  gave  his  consent. 

The  first  thing  the  young  principal  did  was  to 
make  a  complete  inventory  of  everything  in  the  lo- 
cality :  the  people  who  owned  their  homes ;  those 
who  were  tenents;  those  who  had  telephones  and 
rural  free  delivery  of  mail ;  the  number  of  horses, 
mules,  hogs,  sheep  and  cattle  in  the  community;  the 
status  of  the  churches  and  the  condition  of  the  coun- 
try roads ;  the  chief  social  interests  of  the  young  peo- 
ple ;  and  a  great  many  other  things.  In  truth,  he 
soon  knew  more  about  the  community  than  any 
other  man  residing  in  it.  He  became  thoroughly 
familiar  with  the  industrial,  social,  religious  and 
educational  standards  of  the  people  with  whom  he 
had  cast  his  lot  as  teacher  and  community-builder. 

Among  other  things,  lie  discovered  a  group  of 
young  men  who  liked  to  sing.     He  also  liked  to 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL      3 1 

sing.  For  three  years  he  was  a  member  of  a  small 
college  glee  club  before  coming  to  that  place.  One 
evening  he  invited  seven  of  these  boys  to  come  over 
and  be  his  guests  after  supper.  For  more  than  two 
hours  they  stood  in  a  group  around  the  piano  and 
sang.  They  learned  a  number  of  simple  old  college 
songs  that  were  perfectly  new  in  that  community. 
From  that  time  on  they  met  regularly  and  practised 
singing  two  nights  each  week.  In  the  course  of 
three  months  of  intensive  training  this  teacher  had 
evolved  the  best  male  quartette  ever  heard  in  that 
part  of  the  country.  They  were  singing  regularly 
for  the  two  churches  and  had  given  one  concert  at 
the  schoolhouse  that  was  well  received  by  all  the 
people.  In  short,  the  teacher  had  won  the  confi- 
dence of  the  school  patrons  and  the  unanimous 
support  of  the  young  people  he  sought  to  lead. 

His  next  endeavor  was  to  do  some  local  exten- 
sion work.  A  concert  was  given  at  the  schoolhouse 
in  an  adjacent  district  one  Friday  night.  The  same 
program  was  rendered  at  the  other  three  of  the  five 
schools  in  question  on  each  of  the  three  following 
Friday  nights.  The  boys  were  improving  in  their 
singing  all  the  while,  and  they  were  giving  the  best 
program  that  many  of  those  people  had  ever  heard. 
It  proved   so  popular   that   the  people   asked   that 


32       THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

it  be  repeated.  It  was  repeated.  All  this  covered 
a  period  of  nine  successive  Friday  nights.  But  it 
was  worth  the  time  and  effort.  It  was  part  of 
the  deep-seated  scheme  and  program  of  educational 
propaganda  that  this  ingenious  young  man  had  con- 
ceived for  uniting  the  people  and  consolidating  these 
five  small  schools  into  one  larger  and  more  efficient 
educational  unit. 

He  then  went  to  the  county-seat  town  and  con- 
fided his  plan  to  the  pastor  of  the  Methodist  church. 
This  pastor  was  a  very  fluent  speaker,  a  delightful 
entertainer,  and  had  spent  several  years  of  his  life 
as  the  superintendent  of  schools  in  a  town  of  four 
thousand  population.  He  agreed  to  come  out  on 
five  successive  Friday  nights  in  regular  lyceum 
fashion  and  give  five  lectures  at  these  five  school- 
houses.  The  five  lectures  were  delivered  and 
highly  appreciated  by  all  who  heard  them.  The 
central  theme  was  the  Twentieth-Century  Rural 
School.  But  the  idea  of  consolidating  the  schools 
in  that  locality  was  most  assiduously  avoided  at  all 
these  meetings. 

After  this  lecture  program,  extending  over  five 
weeks,  the  teacher  procured  a  stereopticon  and  a  set 
of  fifty-two  rural-school  slides.  Then  he  went 
before  these  people  again  and  in  a  visual  way  showed 


them  some  of  the  bigger,  better,  more  modern 
things  in  rural  education.  Improved  playgrounds, 
modern  buildings,  social  centers,  libraries,  labora- 
tories for  rural  schools,  and  the  conveyance  of  pupils 
at  public  expense  were  some  of  the  subjects  brought 
to  their  attention. 

At  the  end  of  nine  months  of  tactful,  judicious 
education,  these  people  were  demanding  for  them- 
selves the  very  things  this  young  teacher  had  in 
mind  when  he  went  among  them.  They  were 
desirous  of  a  school  with  a  greater  aggregation  of 
pupils,  more  teachers,  and  better  equipment.  To 
all  effects,  the  vast  majority  of  them  were  asking 
for  consolidation,  though  consolidation  as  such  had 
not  been  broached  to  them  one  time. 

This  young  teacher  knew  how  to  reckon  with 
practical  affairs.  He  knew  how  to  estimate  the 
ideals  and  temperament  of  his  constituents  and  how 
to  apply  remedial  measures  to  his  community's  needs. 
He  was  something  more  than  a  pedantic,  academic 
instructor  in  the  class-room.  He  was  a  fisher  of 
men  and  a  leader  of  people. 

4.  Great  Leadership  in  a  One-Teacher  School. 
— One  Tuesday  afternoon,  slightly  more  than  two 
years  ago,  in  a  one-teacher  school,  fourteen  miles 
from  the  railroad.   I  heard   Alma  Gluck  sing  and 


34      THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

Woodrow  Wilson  talk  to  more  than  twenty  country 
children  below  the  eighth  grade.  Fritz  Kreisler 
was  there  with  his  violin,  and  Victor  Herbert  gave 
a  concert.  The  Victrola  had  brought  the  popular 
artists  of  the  world  together  to  delight  and  instruct 
those  children.  It  was  giving  them  a  taste  for 
higher  culture  and  many  of  the  best  things  in  life. 

The  Victrola,  library,  physiology  charts,  pri- 
mary reading  charts,  a  cabinet  of  maps,  some 
attractive  school-room  pictures,  and  a  museum  con- 
stituted the  interior  equipment  of  this  magnificent 
little  school.  It  was  indeed  a  worthy  home  and  a 
most  amiable  school  center  for  the  fortunate  children 
in  attendance. 

The  agent  responsible  for  this  delightful  school 
was  a  little  blonde  girl  weighing  about  one  hundred 
and  ten  pounds  in  the  person  of  the  teacher.  All 
this  equipment  had  been  provided  and  the  school 
tax  raised  from  zero  to  fifty  cents  on  the  one  hun- 
dred dollars  during  her  three  years  of  residence 
with  those  people.  Each  step  in  the  making  of  that 
school  has  an  interesting  history.  The  stories  of 
the  Victrola  and  the  tax  election  are  especially 
illuminating.  The  account  of  the  tax  election  runs 
about  as  follows : 

The  largest  property  holder  in  the  district  had 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL       35 

always  been  opposed  to  a  school  tax.  He  had 
fought  and  defeated  two  local  tax  campaigns  in  the 
district  during  the  years  gone  by.  On  numerous 
occasions  he  had  threatened  to  make  his  tenants 
move  and  to  raise  the  rent  on  them  if  they  voted 
for  a  school  tax.  In  short,  the  one  almost  insur- 
mountable hindrance  in  the  school's  pathway  was 
this  man.  He  had  denied  almost  two  generations 
of  children  in  that  district  the  rights  of  a  standard 
free-school  education.  He  was  cold-blooded, 
uncompromising,  and  overbearing.  Most  of  his 
neighbors  disliked  him  and  feared  him. 

The  teacher  spent  the  first  year  of  her  tenure 
in  that  community  studying  this  man.  She  spent 
the  second  year  cultivating  his  acquaintance,  getting 
into  his  confidence  and  exploiting  his  weak  points. 
By  the  third  year  she  knew  him  far  better  than  he 
knew  himself.  She  had  made  herself  his  mistress, 
though  he  was  quite  unaware  of  it.  He  would  take 
orders  from  her  and  obey  them  like  a  school  child. 
He  never  offered  her  one  word  of  protest. 

He  volunteered  to  purchase  ten  new  Victrola 
records  for  the  school  if  the  teacher  would  select 
them.  He  sent  two  teams  that  worked  all  day  when 
the  school  grounds  were  being  leveled.  He  helped 
repaint  the  schoolhouse.     On  one  occasion  he  took 


36       THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

the  teacher  and  the  pupils  in  his  two  cars  for  an 
all-day  picnic.  He  often  called  at  the  school  to  see 
what  was  needed.  In  two  years  he  had  uncon- 
sciously become  a  good  school  patron.  At  the 
solicitation  of  the  teacher  he  had  permitted  his 
name  to  be  placed  on  the  ticket  for  school  trustee. 
He  was  elected  and  made  chairman  of  the  school 
board. 

The  time  had  come  to  launch  the  school-tax  cam- 
paign. The  teacher  had  procured  the  necessary 
legal  forms  for  the  petition  for  the  election.  Every- 
thing was  ready.  The  spirit  of  the  community  was 
fine.  All  the  patrons  were  giving  the  school  the 
full  support  of  their  moral  influence.  It  was  evi- 
dent that  the  election  would  be  easy  to  carry  if  the 
arch-enemy  of  school  taxes  did  rise  up  in  his  wrath 
and  smite  it. 

Up  to  this  time  the  school-tax  campaign  was 
secret  to  all  but  the  teacher.  For  several  days  the 
children  had  been  making  banners.  They  knew  that 
an  educational  parade  of  some  sort  was  being 
planned.  But  they  had  no  conception  of  its  nature 
or  what  it  portended  for  the  future. 

On  Saturday  morning  five  automobiles  were 
decorated  in  gala  attire  with  banners,  bunting, 
streamers  and  placards.  With  about  thirty  hilar- 
ious school  children  and  young  people,  a  round  of 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL       T>7 

the  community  was  begun  at  ten  o'clock.  They 
characterized  themselves  as  "educational  boosters." 
The  teacher  and  the  three  trustees  were  in  the  car 
leading  the  pageant.  Six  other  cars  were  in  line 
with  the  five  decorated  ones. 

The  first  stop  was  at  the  little  village  center  of 
the  community  consisting  of  a  general  merchandise 
store,  a  drug-store  and  a  blacksmith  shop.  Stand- 
ing on  the  high  porch  in  front  of  the  drug-store,  the 
teacher  talked  for  ten  minutes  to  the  people  as- 
sembled. She  laid  particular  stress  on  the  financial 
needs  of  the  school.  Then  she  presented  the  peti- 
tion for  the  tax  election.  She  procured  nine 
signatures  from  the  laymen  present.  Then  she 
presented  it  to  the  three  members  of  the  school 
board  for  them  to  sign  on  the  three  blank  spaces 
reserved  for  them  at  the  top  of  the  list.  Without 
hesitation  or  objection  they  promptly  added  their 
three  signatures  to  the  list  already  signed.  In  a 
few  more  hours  twenty  signatures,  the  number 
necessary  to  call  the  election,  were  procured.  Be- 
fore night  the  county  judge  was  consulted,  the 
election  ordered  and  the  election  notices  were  offi- 
cially posted  on  the  schoolhouse  door.  When  the 
election  day  came,  there  was  not  a  dissenting  vote 
cast  against  the  tax. 

This  teacher  had  won  a  victory.     She  had  silenced 


38      THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

the  most  formidable  redoubt  threatening  public 
education  in  that  community  without  having  to 
assault  it.  She  had  vanquished  an  enemy  without 
having  to  conquer  or  defeat  him.  She  had  taken 
him  alive  and  led  him  into  captivity,  and  he  was 
satisfied  with  his  lot.  Shrewdness  and  diplomacy 
were  her  conquering  weapons. 

Molding  the  attitude  of  an  individual  is  very 
much  like  molding  public  sentiment  in  a  com- 
munity. Some  dominant  interest  must  be  hit  upon 
as  a  point  of  departure  to  work  out  from  to  other 
things.  This  man  was  a  great  lover  of  music. 
When  the  teacher  installed  the  Victrola  and  some 
high-class  records  in  the  school,  she  enlisted  one  of 
his  most  available  interests.  She  was  quick  to 
exploit  the  advantage  thus  gained.  Her  desire  was 
for  an  unconscious  expansion  of  his  interests  to 
other  things.  This  she  accomplished.  In  two 
years  his  most  obstinate  protests  against  the  school 
were  changed  to  words  and  deeds  of  support. 

5.  The  Supreme  Test  of  a  Community  Leader. 
— It  takes  an  artist  in  human  affairs  to  know  how- 
to  identify  and  attack  rural  community  problems 
successfully.  With  the  problem  unmistakably 
identified,  the  next  question  is  the  method  of 
approach  to  its  solution.     Herein  lies  the  supreme 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL       39 

test  of  the  teacher  as  a  practical  leader  of  people. 
For  every  problem  there  are  numerous  methods  of 
attack.  There  is  the  first  best  method,  the  second 
best  method,  and  the  fortieth  best  method.  Some 
teachers  possess  the  shrewdness  and  keenness  of 
insight  to  detect  the  very  best  and  the  most  practical 
of  all  the  avenues  of  approach  to  each  problem  that 
arises.  Other  teachers  fail  because  they  begin  at 
the  wrong  place,  in  the  wrong  way,  and  at  the 
inopportune  time.  They  err  in  their  diagnosis  and  • 
use  poor  judgment  in  the  methods  of  administering 
the  treatment  they  undertake. 

The  young  man  who  installed  the  library,  pre- 
viously mentioned,  possessed  the  genius  of  true 
leadership.  He  knew  how  to  begin  and  where  to 
begin  a  practical  campaign  for  community  uplift. 
I  have  thought  over  the  case  of  that  community  many 
times.  Of  all  the  positions  from  which  he  might 
have  launched  his  campaign  for  more  books  and 
healthy  reading  habits,  I  can  not  think  of  one  half 
so  strategic  and  appropriate  as  the  one  he  chose. 
At  that  particular  time  and  place  the  minds  of  that 
receptive  body  of  young  people  constituted  the  logi- 
cal point  of  departure.  He  saw  it  and  made  use  of 
the  opportunity.  He  detected  a  community  need 
and  met  it  in  a  simple,  practical  way. 


40       THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

We  need  more  teachers  who  are  capable  of  being 
men  and  women  among  other  men  and  women. 
Too  few  of  onr  present  generation  of  teachers  know 
how  to  make  their  ways  successfully  into  the  ranks 
of  people.  They  break  down  at  the  point  of  social 
contact.  They  lack  social  aggressiveness.  For 
that  reason,  they  do  not  have  a  competent  under- 
standing of  grown  people.  Such  knowledge  is  not 
acquired  through  the  dogmas,  formulae  and  academic 
tests  of  the  teaching  profession.  Teachers  with  only 
academic  training  can  never  be  successful  leaders 
of  people  and  constructive  directors  of  group 
activities. 

The  men  and  women  of  the  hour  in  the  teaching 
profession  must  have  a  practical  knowledge  of 
people.  They  must  also  be  capable  of  seeing  com- 
munity problems  and  handling  them.  I  trust  that 
the  three  instances  of  leadership  cited  in  this  chap- 
ter may  cause  other  teachers  to  look  more 
searchingly  into  the  tasks  and  opportunities  set 
before  them. 

THOUGHT  QUESTIONS 

i.  The  doctor  always  diagnoses  the  patient's  case 
very  carefully  before  issuing  a  prescription.  Why 
should  the  teacher  follow  the  same  practise  in  meeting 
the    practical    difficulties    of    school    administration? 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL       4 1 

Which  is  the  more  difficult  patient  to  diagnose,  a  sick 
person  or  a  sick  community  ?  What  are  the  most 
serious  ailments  affecting  the  community  where  you 
are  to  teach  this  year  ?  Are  you  trying  to  correct  any 
of  them? 

2.  Suggest  three  methods  of  initiating  a  library 
campaign  similar  to  the  one  mentioned  in  this  chapter. 
Have  you  ever  known  of  a  teacher's  failing  to  get  a 
school  tax  voted,  or  to  put  new  books  in  the  library, 
or  to  buy  a  Victrola  or  other  school  equipment, 
simply  because  she  did  not  start  right? 

A  teacher  once  said,  "I  enlisted  the  assistance  of  my 
mothers'  club  in  raising  money  for  the  library,  but  I 
did  not  invite  it  to  help  select  the  books  after  the 
money  was  raised."  Did  he  act  wisely?  Does  your 
mothers'  club  interfere  with  the  internal  affairs  of  your 
school?  If  so,  whose  fault  is  it?  Would  this  inter- 
ference have  been  averted  if  you  had  directed  its 
interests  to  the  allied  activities  of  the  school  such  as 
playgrounds,  pictures  for  the  school-rooms,  sanitary 
drinking  fountains,  etc.  ?  Do  questions  of  discipline, 
class  management,  and  methods  of  instruction  fall 
within  the  province  of  the  mothers'  club? 

3.  Suggest  three  other  ways  by  which  the  campaign 
for  consolidating  the  five  school  districts  mentioned  in 
this  chapter  might  have  been  successfully  inaugurated. 
Would  this  consolidation  have  been  possible  without 
the  seven  months  of  skilful  education  this  young  man 
gave  the  people  in  those  five  districts?  Will  people 
have  better  schools  when  they  want  better  schools  and 
know  what  better  schools  look  like? 

4.  Do  you  have  an  obstinate   patron  opposed   to 


42       THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

school  taxes?  What  are  some  of  the  things  that 
interest  him  most?  Could  he  be  converted  by  some 
method  similar  to  the  one  employed  by  the  young 
woman  teacher  mentioned  in  this  chapter? 


CHAPTER  III 
Getting  the  School  before  the  People 

The  commercial  world  knows  the  value  of  adver- 
tising and  knows  equally  well  how  to  advertise. 
The  psychology  of  advertising  has  become  a  fine 
art.  A  practical  advertisement  attracts  attention, 
holds  attention,  and  creates  a  desire  for  the  thing 
advertised.  To  attract  attention  it  must  be  dis- 
played in  a  public  place.  The  bill-board  and  the 
electric  sign  are  never  put  in  the  back  alley.  To 
hold  attention  and  fix  itself  permanently  in  memory, 
the  advertisement  must  be  made  impressive  and 
repeated  as  often  as  possible.  To  create  a  desire 
in  the  mind  of  the  customer  or  patron,  the  thing 
advertised  must  be  shown  to  have  the  power  of 
satisfying  some  physical,  social  or  cultural  want. 

Educators,  as  a  rule,  are  not  practical  publicity 
agents.  The  art  of  school  advertising  has  not  been 
studied  very  seriously  by  most  of  them.  It  is  a 
subtle  and  difficult  art  requiring  much  more  skill 
than  the  displaying  of  things  to  eat  and  wear. 
Blatant  educational  advertising  would  cause  adverse 
criticism  and  defeat  its  very  purpose.  The  dignity 
of  the  school  must  be  preserved  at  all  times.     Yet, 

43 


44       THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

publicity  of  the  right  sort  is  as  legitimate  for  the 
school,  library  and  playground  as  for  the  corner 
grocery  store.  The  teacher  should  vitalize  the 
school  and  let  the  people  know  there  is  a  schoot 
in  the  community.  There  are  many  devices  by 
which  this  can  be  done.  -* 

The  following  are  some  of  the  devices  I  have 
seen  put  to  practical  use  in  calling  public  attention 
to  the  school  and  in  popularizing  the  school  with 
the  pupils  and  patrons.  I  trust  that  they  may  be  of 
use  to  other  teachers. 

i.  Painting  the  Old  Belfry. — Twelve  years  ago, 
in  the  Western  Cross-Timbers  of  Texas,  the  value 
of  local  school  publicity  was  accidentally  brought 
home  to  a  young  teacher  in  the  following  spec- 
tacular way.  The  belfry  on  top  of  the  old  stone 
building  where  three  teachers  were  to  have  charge 
during  the  ensuing  year  was  in  a  bad  state  of  repair. 
The  principal  came  to  the  community  a  week  before 
school  opened.  He  could  not  endure  the  thought  of 
having  to  look  at  the  painfully  dilapidated  old  belfry 
every  day  during  the  entire  session  of  eight  months. 
On  Thursday  morning  of  that  week  he  repaired  and 
painted  it.  On  Friday  afternoon  he  gave  it  a 
second  coat  of  white  paint.  On  Saturday  morning 
he  went  with  the  local  doctor  as  he  made  his  calls 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL      45 

in  the  community  and  discovered  that  the  newly 
painted  belfry  on  the  old  schoolhouse  on  the  hill 
could  be  distinctly  seen  in  every  direction  for  a 
radius  of  five  miles.  It  stood  out  white  and  con- 
spicuous in  the  autumn  sun.  It  had  attracted 
attention  and  occasioned  inquiry  from  most  of  the 
residents  in  the  district. 

At  church  on  Sunday  morning,  before  services 
began  and  while  the  people  were  assembling,  the 
pastor,  a  friend  and  former  acquaintance  of  the  new 
teacher,  grasped  his  hand  and  said :  "Allow  me  to 
congratulate  you.  young  man.  You  are  an  artist, 
a  psychologist  and  a  diplomat.  You  are  a  good 
advertiser.  You  have  hung  your  sign  up  good  and 
high,  and  all  the  people  in  the  community  know  the 
new  teacher  has  come." 

The  young  man  falteringly  acknowledged  the 
compliment  with  a  stammering  "Thank  you."  Until 
that  moment  the  thought  of  public  display  had  not 
occurred  to  him.  But  he  got  the  cue  to  a  new  idea 
that  he  has  acted  upon  to  great  advantage  many 
times  since.  It  is  this.  In  education,  as  in  business, 
it  pays  to  advertise.  And  experience  has  since 
taught  him  that  the  more  remote  the  district  and 
the  narrower  the  interests  of  its  people,  the  simpler 
are  the  methods  that  may  be  used. 


46      THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

2.  A  Beautiful  Playground. — In  an  East-Texas 
village  of  less  than  five  hundred  population  there  is 
a  beautiful  school  playground.  The  lawn  is  large 
and  looks  like  the  lawn  in  front  of  a  well-kept  city 
home.  This  playground  is  the  one  outstanding 
attraction  of  the  community.  All  the  play  appara- 
tus is  painted  white  and  stands  out  in  ornamental 
relief  against  the  green  landscape.  The  ground  is 
encircled  by  a  race  course  twenty,  feet  wide  and 
more  than  half  a  mile  in  circumference.  This 
playground  is  put  to  intensive  use  during  the  school 
months  and  is  by  no  means  idle  during  vacation. 
It  is  a  veritable  joy-spot  in  the  life  of  the  community. 

When  I  last  visited  that  place,  the  swings  and  see- 
saws had  just  been  painted  white.  There  was  also 
a  long  line  of  white  hurdles,  and  the  basketball  goal 
posts  were  whitewashed  to  the  tops.  I  asked  the 
principal  why  he  had  painted  all  his  playground 
equipment  white.  His  answer  was,  "So  people  can 
see  it." 

This  man  had  designed  his  playground  to  attract 
and  compel  the  attention  of  every  passer-by.  Every 
piece  of  equipment  was  displayed  to  the  very  best 
advantage.  The  hurdles,  swings  and  giant  strides 
were  given  conspicuous  places,  and  the  tennis  courts 
had  been  moved  from  the  back  side  of  the  campus 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL      47 

over  next  to  the  public  road,  where  they  could  be 
seen  to  better  advantage  by  the  passing  public. 

School  spirit  in  that  community  is  all  that  could 
be  desired.  The  educational  esprit  de  corps  among 
the  pupils,  patrons  and  laymen  could  not  be  better. 
The  biggest  thing  in  the  community  is  the  school. 
The  eyes  of  all  the  people  are  on  it.  The  play- 
ground is  only  one  of  the  many  devices  that  have 
been  used  in  keeping  this  school  before  the  people 
and  giving  it  popularity.  The  principal  knows  how 
to  advertise  the  cause  of  education  in  a  practical 
way.  He  knows  the  kind  of  advertising  to  use  in 
that  particular  community. 

3.  A  Babcock  Milk  Tester — A  few  years  ago 
a  North-Texas  county  superintendent  took  me  to 
what  he  said  was  the  best-regulated  and  best-taught 
school  under  his  supervision.  On  our  arrival  at  the 
schoolhouse  that  morning  the  unusually  large  per- 
centage of  grown  young  people  in  attendance 
immediately  told  me  there  were  things  out  of  the 
ordinary  happening  at  that  school.  The  distin- 
guishing feature  of  this  school  was  the  close 
articulation  of  its  work  in  the  higher  grades  with 
the  interests  of  the  homes  and  the  farms  in  the 
community. 

In  a  small  laboratory  that  had  been  improvised. 


48       THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

for  the  most  part  by  the  teacher  and  the  boys,  a 
fifteen-year-old  boy  was  working  with  a  Babcock 
milk  tester.  He  said  to  the  county  superintendent : 
"The  seniors  tested  part  of  the  cows  before  Christ- 
mas, and  the  ninth  grade  is  testing  the  rest  of  them 
now.  They  found  several  boarders  before  Christ- 
mas, and  we  found  another  one  yesterday.  You 
know,  a  boarder  cow  is  one  that  does  not  produce 
enough  butter-fat  to  pay  for  the  feed  she  eats.  She 
just  boards  around  with  the  rest  of  the  cows." 

The  Babcock  tester  was  only  one  of  the  agencies 
this  school  had  adopted  for  making  itself  a  dynamic 
force  for  good  to  every  home  and  every  farm  in 
that  school  district.  This  was  a  school  conducted 
in  simple  terms  of  usefulness  that  all  could  see  and 
understand.  The  people  felt  that  it  was  their 
servant  and  the  community's  best  friend,  and  they 
stood  ready  to  support  and  defend  it  at  all  times. 

4.  The  Farm  Terracing  Level. — A  farm  ter- 
racing level  costs  about  fifteen  dollars.  This  instru- 
ment is  beginning  to  win  popularity  as  a  piece  of 
rural-school  laboratory  equipment.  Thousands  of 
farms  are  being  washed  away  and  damaged  by 
heavy  rains.  Scientific  terracing  is  the  only  rem- 
edy that  will  save  them.  Therein  lies  a  great 
opportunity  for  the  alert  teacher  ready  to  come  to 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL       49 

the  economic  rescue  of  his  school  patrons.  It  is  not 
only  an  opportunity  for  meritorious  service,  but  it 
is  an  invaluable  opportunity  for  establishing  a 
sympathetic  connection  between  the  school  and 
many  indifferent  patrons  otherwise  difficult  to 
reach.  It  is  the  kind  of  service  that  wins  the  con- 
fidence of  the  average  country  man  and  increases  his 
respect  for  the  school  and  the  teacher. 

The  school  terracing  level  should  see  service  on 
all  the  farms  of  the  community  where  it  is  needed. 
It  should  be  a  piece  of  community-owned  property 
put  to  intensive,  practical  use,  and  not  a  curio  treas- 
ured behind  the  doors  of  a  locked  cabinet  at  the 
schoolhouse.  The  farmers  and  their  sons  will  do 
the  work,  if  the  teacher  will  only  take  the  initiative 
and  show  them  the  way. 

Recently  at  a  teachers'  institute  one  teacher 
remarked  to  some  others  talking  in  a  group  at  inter- 
mission :  "The  terracing  level  helped  me  put  the 
school  on  the  map  out  at  my  place.  It  was  one  of 
our  big  trump  cards  in  the  game  of  education  out 
there  last  year."  A  few  days  later  it  was  my  good 
fortune  to  be  in  that  man's  school.  The  older 
pupils  went  out  into  a  neighboring  field  and  made 
the  survey  for  a  terrace  as  I  directed.  The  confi- 
dence and  alacrity  with  which  thev  handled  the  tri- 


50      THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

pod,  level,  tape  line  and  elevation  rod  and  target 
were  sufficient  to  demonstrate  that  they  knew  very 
well  what  they  were  about.  The  survey  was  de- 
veloped and  stakes  were  driven  into  the  ground 
marking  its  path  for  a  distance  of  more  than  two 
hundred  yards  on  that  old  red-clay  hillside  badly 
butchered  with  gullies.  It  was  not  a  piece  of  hap- 
hazard guesswork;  it  was  a  piece  of  scientific 
accuracy  taught  through  the  agency  of  a  school  that 
was  intelligently  going  about  the  practical  solution  of 
a  few  economic  problems  in  an  agricultural  district. 
An  East-Texas  county  superintendent  recently 
said :  "The  county  farm  demonstrator  and  I  have 
been  seriously  contemplating  a  campaign  for  a  ter- 
racing level,  Babcock  milk  tester,  spraying  appara- 
tus, and  possibly  a  compound  microscope  for  each 
of  about  fifteen  of  the  best  schools  in  this  county. 
Our  farms  need  terracing;  dairying  should  be 
encouraged ;  we  have  to  fight  insect  pests  and  fun- 
gous diseases  in  our  orchards  and  gardens  with 
spraying  mixtures;  and  if  the  children  could  look 
through  the  microscope  down  into  the  world  of 
diatoms  occasionally,  I  think  it  would  be  of  great 
value  to  them  in  the  intelligent  understanding  and 
application  of  many  of  the  laws  of  health  and  sani- 
tation back  at  home.     And  besides  that,  these  verv 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL       5 1 

instruments  of  education  would  be  of  immense 
strategic  importance  in  giving  the  schools  prom- 
inence and  in  helping  them  to  enlist  the  interests  of 
many  patrons  now  indifferent  to  the  cause  of 
education." 

5.  Arithmetic  Instruction  That  Reaches  the 
Home. — When  asked  what  text  was  being  used  in 
arithmetic,  a  teacher  replied,  "None."  He  meant 
this  statement  for  the  upper  grades  only,  and  it  was 
almost  literally  true,  though  the  adopted  text  was 
used  to  some  extent  as  a  sort  of  reference  book. 
The  boys  had  been  required  to  take  tape  lines  and 
make  measurements  of  every  silo,  wheat  bin,  corn 
bin  and  cistern  in  the  school  district,  and  compute 
their  respective  capacities  in  tons,  bushels  and  gal- 
lons. They  had  been  taught  the  use  of  the 
carpenter's  square  and  could  cut  a  rafter  of  any 
desired  pitch,  run  a  simple  stairway,  make  a  miter- 
box,  and  do  a  great  many  other  practical  things. 
They  knew  how  to  make  a  simple  drawing  to  any 
desired  scale.  They  could  make  out  a  bill  for  the 
lumber  in  a  garage,  a  small  barn,  or  a  simple  farm- 
house. They  had  learned  the  use  of  fractions  and 
percentage  in  making  up  balanced  rations  for  dairy 
cows,  flocks  of  laying  hens,  and  other  exercises 
taken  from  the  industries  of  the  community. 


52       THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

Then  I  thought  of  another  school,  somewhere  in 
Texas,  where  the  pupils  knew  the  printed  rules,  the 
formulae  and  the  examples  of  the  text,  but  were  help- 
less in  the  practical  applications  of  them.  They 
could  make  a  good  grade  on  a  written  examination, 
but  they  could  not  keep  an  accurate  set  of  farm 
accounts,  and  were  nonplused  when  given  a  prob- 
lem not  taken  from  the  books  they  had  studied. 
Realizing  the  extreme  artificiality  of  this  school, 
one  of  the  patrons  with  a  clear  conception  of  the 
kind  of  education  that  educates  for  practical  use- 
fulness, paid  it  a  visit  and  gave  some  tests  one  day. 
He  took  twenty-three  new  neckties  and  a  sample  of 
cotton  with  him  when  he  went  to  the  school. 
There  were  just  twenty-three  boys  and  girls  in  the 
ninth  and  tenth  grades.  He  took  the  neckties  to 
offer  as  prizes  for  the  correct  solution  of  a  simple 
problem  taken  from  his  business  that  morning.  He 
held  up  the  white  sample  of  cotton  in  his  right  hand 
and  said :  "This  sample  is  taken  from  the  big  bale 
you  see  just  across  the  road  by  the  scales.  I  bought 
that  bale  this  morning.  It  is  classed  as  strict  mid- 
dling. The  quotation  for  strict  middling  to-day  is 
12.875  cents  per  pound.  The  man  I  bought  this  cot- 
ton from  had  a  small  account  down  at  my  store. 
Now,  I  want  you  pupils  to  go  over  in  a  body  and 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL       53 

get  the  weight  of  that  bale  from  the  weightmaster ; 
then  go  down  to  the  store  and  get  an  itemized 
statement  of  this  man's  account  from  the  book- 
keeper, and  tell  me  what  was  the  balance  due  him 
on  his  cotton.  No  pupil  is  to  assist  another  in  the 
calculations  made." 

Thirty  minutes  later  the  twenty-three  pupils 
returned  with  the  necessary  data.  They  were  all 
puzzled  and  some  of  them  dumfounded.  They  had 
never  had  an  example  presented  in  that  way  in  their 
lives.  They  knew  arithmetic  and  knew  it  very  well, 
too.  But  the  arithmetic  they  knew  was  inevitably 
glued  to  the  printed  pages  they  had  studied.  They 
could  not  dissociate  it  from  the  book  and  turn  it  to 
practical  use.  Only  two  neckties  were  awarded  as 
prizes  for  success.  Twenty-one  persons  failed  to 
solve  the  simple  problem,  and  twenty-one  neckties 
were  returned  to  their  places  in  the  showcase  in 
the  village  store. 

Here  we  have  two  types  of  schools.  One  is  real, 
the  other  artificial;  one  is  born  of  present-day 
needs,  the  other  a  decrepit  creature  of  tradition ; 
one  is  a  beacon  light  of  usefulness  in  the  community, 
the  other  a  silent  partner  in  the  community's  affairs; 
one  is  productive  of  healthy  school  spirit,  the  other 
a  breeder  of  educational  apathy ;  one  is  seen  and  felt 
for  good,  the  other  is  obscure  and  unappreciated. 


54       THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

6.  Live-Stock  Judging. — Three  years  ago  I 
received  a  picture  of  a  beautiful  Hereford  animal 
with  a  group  of  schoolboys  standing  in  a  semicircle 
about  him.  Each  boy  had  a  score-card  in  his  hand 
and  was  making  notations  of  all  the  strong  and 
weak  points  of  this  animal.  In  short,  they  were 
taking  part  of  their  final  examination  in  the  ele- 
mentary course  in  animal  husbandry  given  in  that 
school.  Another  picture  contained  a  beautiful  driv- 
ing horse  and  this  group  of  boys  standing  about  him 
with  score-cards  in  hand  in  the  same  manner. 

Since  that  time  I  have  received  quite  a  number 
of  pictures  similar  to  these  from  other  schools  in 
the  state.  One  distinguishing  characteristic  of  this 
group  of  pictures  is  that  some  interested  farmer  or 
group  of  farmers  can  be  seen  in  the  background,  or 
to  the  extreme  right  or  the  extreme  left,  in  almost 
every  one  of  them.  These  attentive  onlookers  tell 
a  gratifying  story.  Their  very  presence  proves 
that  the  school  is  dealing  with  things  that  interest 
them. 

The  successful  school  of  the  twentieth  century 
must  reach  the  people  back  at  home  as  well  as  the 
children  in  attendance.  It  is  a  mistake  to  think 
that  the  public  school  exists  for  children  only.  It 
has  numerous  obligations  to  the  parents  and  other 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL       55 

grown  people.  Much  of  its  success  depends  upon 
its  skill  in  administering  to  their  wants  and  needs. 
The  judging  of  live  stock,  boys'  and  girls'  indus- 
trial clubs,  home  projects,  the  school  fair  and  the 
social  center,  when  discreetly  used,  are  a  few  of  the 
devices  by  which  these  ends  may  be  attained. 

7.  Home  Projects. — One  of  the  most  indus- 
trious creatures  on  earth  is  a  healthy  child.  Normal 
children  crave  employment.  They  are  anxious  for 
things  to  do.  They  are  eternally  busy.  Idleness  is 
contrary  to  their  nature.  It  is  a  mistake  to  say  that 
children  are  lazy.  They  merely  rebel  against  doing 
things  that  are  of  no  interest  to  them.  Grown 
people  do  the  same. 

The  normal  human  animal  of  all  ages  is  a  crea- 
ture of  action.  Children  may  not  always  choose 
the  most  profitable  thing  to  do,  but  they  are  always 
doing  something.  Enforced  idleness  will  destroy 
much  of  the  best  there  is  in  them.  The  normal 
youth  likes  to  express  himself  in  deeds  wrought 
with  his  own  hands.  He  will  do  so  if  the  oppor- 
tunity is  given  him  and  the  stimulus  of  encourage- 
ment is  judiciously  applied. 

In  one  community  a  boy  recently  improvised  a 
wireless  telegraph  instrument  and  innocently  amused 
himself  by  intercepting  passing  messages  until  fed- 


56       THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

eral  officials  came  out  and  confiscated  his  apparatus ; 
in  another,  a  boy  made  and  installed  a  kitchen  sink, 
doing  all  the  necessary  plumbing  with  his  own  hands  ; 
at  a  third  place,  trap-nests  for  the  pure-bred  hens 
and  brooders  for  the  little  chicks  were  made  by  a  lad 
of  twelve  years ;  and  at  literally  scores  of  places,  boys 
have  raised  prize-winning  acres  of  corn  and  peanuts, 
and  have  fed  calves  and  pigs  that  took  first  pre- 
miums in  the  show  rings  at  the  county  fairs.  In 
like  manner,  homes  have  been  screened,  screens  have 
been  kept  in  good  repair,  breeding-places  for  flies  and 
mosquitoes  have  been  destroyed,  ants  have  been 
exterminated,  gardens  grown,  and  fruits  and  vege- 
tables preserved  for  home  consumption  by  schools 
that  have  fostered  projects  to  be  conducted  by  pupils 
at  home  outside  of  school  hours. 

These  projects  conducted  at  home  have  not  only 
furnished  many  practical  problems  for  the  arithmetic 
classes,  valuable  lessons  in  live-stock  feeding  and 
home  sanitation,  and  the  richest  sort  of  content  for 
papers  in  original  English  composition,  but  they 
have  given  the  homes  they  have  touched  an  entirely 
different  attitude  toward  the  school.  These  schools 
have  made  themselves  centers  of  immediate  service 
to  the  homes,  and  the  homes  are  respecting  and 
admiring  them  in  return  for  it.     The  well-adapted 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL       $? 

and  well-directed  project  is  a  worthy  instrument  of 
education  and  a  valuable  instrument  of  moral  strat- 
egy for  the  school  when  properly  used  by  the 
sagacious  teacher. 

8.  The  Community  Fair — Two  years  ago  one 
of  the  best  two-teacher  schools  in  Texas  held  a  com- 
munity fair.  The  essential  features  of  it  were  an 
exhibition  of  school  work  and  farm  products,  and 
a  demonstration  of  cooking  and  food  preparation 
by  the  women  and  girls  in  the  community.  The 
farm  exhibits  were  shown  to  good  advantage  and 
gave  the  appearance  of  a  county  fair.  Seven- 
teen farms  were  represented  by  as  many  small 
booths.  The  farm  exhibits  for  these  seventeen 
booths  were  collected  and  arranged  by  the  children 
under  the  direction  of  the  teacher.  The  final 
arrangements  were  made  on  Saturday  morning,  and 
the  people  were  invited  to  come  in  the  afternoon. 
They  came  and  spread  supper  on  the  school  ground 
and  stayed  till  ten  o'clock  at  night.  A  week  later 
one  of  the  local  papers  published  the  following 
account : 

"The  girls  from  eight  to  sixteen  years  had  a 
table  beautifully  decorated  with  flowers  and  spread 
with  white  linen.  It  was  loaded  with  good  things 
to  eat  of  their  own  cooking.  Prizes  were  awarded 
to  each  of  the  following  culinary  articles ;  cookies, 


58      THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

chocolate  pie,  potato  salad,  jelly  rolls,  ginger  snaps, 
muffins,  cocoanut  pie,  angel  food  cake,  light  rolls, 
and  peach  jelly. 

"The  following  agricultural  products  were  ex- 
hibited :  cotton,  corn,  popcorn,  ribbon  cane,  bunch 
beans,  soy-beans,  peanuts,  sweet  potatoes,  Irish 
potatoes,  radishes,  muskmelons,  watermelons,  pears, 
squashes,  pecans,  broomcorn,  honey,  peaches,  apples 
and  sunflowers. 

"After  partaking  of  the  good  things  to  eat  for 
supper,  a  good  program  was  rendered  in  the  usual 
way." 

Six  months  later  the  same  paper  said : 

"This  community  was  greatly  benefited  by 
that  meeting.  It  is  still  profiting  from  it,  for  the 
after-stimulation  is  still  vibrant  in  its  nerves. 
Other  social  and  educational  gatherings  have  fol- 
lowed. Those  people  have  discovered  something 
about  themselves  they  did  not  know  before.  They 
have  a  rich  treasure  of  good  local  talent  that  has 
been  thoroughly  unconscious  of  itself  all  these 
years  and  lying  dormant  from  lack  of  use.  The 
community  has  just  begun  to  realize  what  it  can  do. 
Industrially,  it  is  experiencing  a  new  birth.  Some 
good  authorities  are  guessing  that  a  number  of 
enviable  agricultural  prizes  will  be  taken  at  the 
county  fair  next  year  by  the  schoolboys.  Socially, 
the  people  are  awake.  Educationally,  they  are 
looking  up.  The  work  of  a  more  extended  use  of 
the  school  plant  is  well  begun.  It  has  brought  a 
new  era  in  the  activities  of  those  people.  And 
every  country  school  in  Texas  would  multiply  its 
usefulness  many  times  if  it  were  more  closely  artic- 
ulated with  the  lives  of  the  people  who  patronize  it. 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL       59 

In   this  way   the  schools  could   add   much   to   the 
attractiveness  of  country  life." 

9.  School-Improvement  Day — The  oftener  the 
patrons  of  a  school  meet  at  the  schoolhouse,  the 
greater  are  the  chances  of  their  being  valuable 
school  workers.  When  the  path  from  the  home  to 
the  schoolhouse  door  is  dim  and  seldom  traveled, 
the  home  is  usually  apathetic  in  its  support  of  the 
school.  When  people  assemble  en  masse  at  school, 
church  or  club,  the  tendency  is  to  forget  selfish  per- 
sonal affairs  and  become  community-minded. 
Public-spirited  people  never  live  to  themselves.  No 
man  can  be  a  good  citizen  and  live  alone.  Exclu- 
siveness  harbors  selfishness. 

School-Improvement  Day  should  be  one  of  the 
big  annual  events  in  every  rural-school  district.  It 
is  a  most  legitimate  way  of  calling  the  people  to- 
gether and  fastening  their  attention  for  an  entire 
day  on  the  physical  needs  of  the  school.  When  the 
school  grounds  need  leveling,  when  weeds  that 
have  grown  during  vacation  need  cutting  and  burn- 
ing, and  when  window-panes  are  to  be  replaced  and 
desks  repaired,  there  is  no  better  plan  than  for  the 
patrons  of  the  school  to  combine  a  day  of  labor  with 
a  day  of  pleasure  by  bringing  dinner  to  the  school- 
house   and   doing   the   work   themselves.      That   is 


6o      THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

much  better  than  hiring  some  carpenter  to  do  the 
work  and  paying  for  it  out  of  the  school  revenues. 
The  economy  is  a  small  matter.  The  effect  in  the 
attitude  of  the  patrons  toward  the  school  is  the  main 
thing.  It  takes  spirit  and  enthusiasm,  as  well  as 
finances  and  equipment,  to  run  a  school.  It  is  hard 
for  a  public  school  to  rise  very  much  above  the  level 
of  the  community's  desire  for  enlightenment. 

The  foregoing  are  only  a  few  of  the  many  de- 
vices that  may  contribute  to  the  generating  of 
wholesome  school  spirit,  but  space  forbids  their 
further  enumeration. 

THOUGHT  QUESTIONS 

What  is  the  most  conspicuous  piece  of  school 
improvement  you  can  make  in  your  school  this  year? 
Have  your  playgrounds  been  properly  improved  and 
attractively  beautified?  Would  a  terracing  level  or  a 
}'>abcock  milk  tester  in  the  school  meet  a  need  in  the 
community  where  you  are  working  this  year?  Have 
you  been  guilty  of  confining  too  much  of  your  arith- 
metic instruction  to  the  text-book?  Do  you  have  any 
patrons  who  are  practical  ranchmen  or  stock-raisers 
to  whom  a  few  school  lessons  and  demonstrations  in 
live-stock  judging  would  appeal?  If  you  are  not 
capable  of  conducting  a  live-stock  judging  contest,  is 
there  any  one  locally  available  who  would  do  it  for 
you?  How  about  the  county  farm  demonstration 
agent  ?     Do  you  have  a  copy  of  the  bulletin  on  school 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL       6 1 

and  community  fairs  from  the  University  of  Texas? 
What  are  the  chief  industries  of  your  school  patrons? 
What  are  some  of  the  home  projects  you  might  under- 
take this  year? 


CHAPTER  IV 

Some   Vitalizing   Educational  Agencies 
and  Organizations 

Teachers  should  be  familiar  with  the  activities 
discussed  in  this  chapter  because  of  their  vitalizing 
influences  among  rural  people.  When  skilfully 
employed  they  simplify  many  of  the  difficulties  that 
stand  in  the  way  of  healthful  school  sentiment. 

i.  The  Boys'  School-Improvement  Club. — In 
a  rural  school  of  four  teachers  I  saw  modern  drink- 
ing fountains  for  the  boys  and  another  group  just 
like  them  for  the  girls.  There  was  a  shower  bath 
for  the  boys  down  on  the  athletic  field.  The  water 
was  supplied  from  a  well  by  a  gasoline  pump  at  the 
teacher's  home  more  than  two  hundred  yards  away. 
There  were  some  new  tennis  courts,  and  a  new  flag- 
pole had  just  been  put  up.  One  of  the  old  school 
buildings,  abandoned  when  a  consolidation  was 
made,  had  been  moved,  repaired  and  equipped  with 
new  apparatus  for  the  agricultural  laboratory.  I 
asked  how  all  these  improvements  had  been  made. 
The  principal  said,  "By  the  Boys'  School-Improve- 
ment Club."     Then  I  got  the  following  information  : 

62 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL       63 

The  people  in  that  district  were  very  poor. 
Most  of  them  owned  their  homes,  but  the  farms 
were  quite  small  and  unprofitable.  The  district 
contained  only  sixteen  square  miles  and  the  property 
values  in  it  were  so  small  that  a  fifty  cent  tax  pro- 
duced less  than  four  hundred  dollars  of  available 
school  revenue  per  year. 

There  were  about  twenty  high-minded,  ambitious 
boys  and  young  men  in  the  community.  Most  of 
them  would  have  taken  a  college  education  had  they 
been  financially  able  to  pay  their  ways  through 
school.  Being  unable  to  do  this,  they  decided  to 
make  the  most  of  what  was  left  for  them  at  home. 
For  this  purpose  the  School-Improvement  Club  was 
organized  with  twenty-two  members,  each  member 
pledging  himself  to  plant  one  acre  of  cotton  and 
contribute  the  proceeds  for  the  purchase  of  needed 
school  equipment. 

At  the  instance  of  the  club,  near  the  end  of  the 
school  year,  a  big  educational  day  was  planned.  It 
was  the  biggest  public  event  ever  in  the  history  of 
the  community.  Nearly  two  thousand  people  were 
present.  In  the  parade  there  were  seven  decorated 
floats,  the  school  orchestra,  the  members  of  the 
boys'  and  girls'  athletic  teams  marching  in  their 
uniforms,    and    more    than    one    thousand    citizens 


64       THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

keeping  step  in  double  file.  The  day's  program 
consisted  of  music,  speaking,  exhibitions  of  school 
work,  athletic  contests,  and  stock-judging  contests. 
The  proceeds  from  the  sales  of  candy,  ice-cream, 
and  cold  drinks  for  the  day  yielded  a  net  profit  of 
one  hundred  and  sixty  dollars  to  the  treasury  of  the 
organization.  This  amount  was  promptly  used  to 
meet  one  of  the  payments  on  the  new  piano  and  to 
purchase  additional  equipment  for  the  domestic- 
science  laboratory. 

The  principal  of  this  school  knew  how  to  harness 
the  excess  energy  of  the  boys  in  that  locality  and 
apply  it  to  useful  enterprises.  The  painting  and 
repairing  of  the  old  building  used  for  a  laboratory 
and  all  the  plumbing  in  the  installation  of  the  water- 
works were  done  by  the  boys.  These  boys,  filled 
with  civic  pride  and  the  desire  for  industrial  effi- 
ciency, were  rapidly  converting  that  poverty- 
stricken  community  into  a  better  place  for  the 
people  to  live.  They  constituted  one  of  the  most 
inspiring  school-improvement  organizations  I  have 
ever  seen. 

2.  The  Boy  Scouts. — The  National  Council  of 
the  Boy  Scouts  of  America,  with  headquarters  in 
New  York  City,  was  originally  incorporated  in 
February,    19 10,   and   chartered  by   Congress  June 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL       65 

15,  19 1 6.*  The  organization  now  has  a  disciplined 
group  of  397,208  Boy  Scouts  and  Scout  officials 
definitely  organized.  There  are  28,593  Scout  Mas- 
ters and  assistants.  Another  54,402  act  as  council- 
men  and  troop  committeemen.  The  Scout  officials 
are  clean  men  and  most  of  them  college-bred. 

"The  Scout  law,  covering  twelve  fundamental 
principles,  requires  a  Scout  first  of  all  to  be  trust- 
worthy. That  means  that  he  must  not  tell  a  lie, 
cheat,  or  deceive,  but  keep  trust  sacred.  A  Scout 
is  loyal  to  all  to  whom  loyalty  is  due,  including  his 
Scout  leader,  his  home,  his  parents  and  his  country. 
Furthermore,  a  Scout  is  helpful,  prepared  at  all 
times  to  save  life,  help  injured  persons  and  do  at 
least  one  good  turn  daily.  A  Scout  is  friendly  to 
all — a  brother  to  every  other  Scout.  A  Scout  is 
courteous,  especially  to  women,  children  and  old 
people,  and  he  must  not  take  any  pay  for  being 
courteous.  A  Scout  is  kind  to  animals  and  does  not 
kill  or  hurt  any  living  creature  needlessly.  A  Scout 
is  obedient.  A  Scout  is  cheerful,  even  when  facing 
hardship  and  drudgery.  A  Scout  is  thrifty.  A 
Scout  is  clean  in  body  and  thought,  stands  for  clean 
speech,  clean  sport,  clean  habits,  and  travels  with  a 
clean  crowd." 

No  expensive  equipment  is  required  for  a  Scout 
organization.  All  that  is  needed  is  the  outdoors,  a 
group  of  boys  and  a  competent  leader.     Outdoor 


'Address  all  communications  to   The    Boy    Scouts   of   America,   200 
Fifth   Avenue,  New   York  City. 


66       THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

Scout  training-,  with  its  hiking,  swimming,  camping, 
cooking,  signaling,  woodcraft,  nature  study  and  the 
like,  enriches  the  fellowship  and  respect  the  boys 
have  for  the  man  teach  who  is  qualified  and  will- 
ing to  lead  them  as  Scout  Master.  The  boy  in  his 
early  teens  idolizes  the  grown  man  who  has  inter- 
ests in  common  with  him  and  is  capable  of  adopting 
him  as  a  companion  and  associate.  His  hero  is  the 
man  who  has  the  skill  to  lead  him  and  the  ability  to 
do  the  simplest  sort  of  practical  things  better  than 
he  can. 

There  are  a  few  men  teachers  with  a  practical 
knowledge  of  boys  and  a  love  for  outdoor  sports 
and  outdoor  life  who  are  making  very  valuable  Scout 
Masters.  A  hike  and  a  camp  with  four  meals  in 
the  woods  from  Friday  afternoon  to  Saturday  night 
puts  them  in  closer  touch  with  the  real  life  of  the 
boys  than  a  whole  month  in  the  class-room  and  on 
the  school  ground.  These  men  are  valuable  civic 
and  moral  benefactors  to  the  groups  they  lead. 
They  are  reducing  the  percentage  of  vicious  habits 
and  moral  delinquency  among  boys  and  simplifying 
some  of  the  most  difficult  problems  of  school  disci- 
pline. Every  man  teacher  would  do  well  to  familiar- 
ize himself  with  this  organization  and  consider  its 
possibilities  for  good  in  his  community. 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL       6j 

3.  Camp-Fire  Girls — The  Camp-Fire  Girls 
had  its  beginning  as  an  organization  in  191 1.*  It 
attempts  to  do  for  the  girls  what  the  Boy  Scouts  is 
doing  for  the  boys.  Its  object  is  to  take  small 
groups  of  girls  that  are  socially  homogeneous  and 
interpret  daily  things  in  terms  of  romance,  beauty 
and  usefulness.  A  few  enterprising  women 
teachers  have  made  profitable  use  of  this  order  for 
young  girls  as  part  of  their  program  of  education 
and  recreation. 

4.  The  Story-Teller's  League. — As  a  rule  the 
rural  communities  that  practise  cooperation  in  edu- 
cation and  industry  to  the  best  advantage  are  those 
where  the  people  spend  the  greatest  amount  of  their 
leisure  time  together.  Any  agency  that  brings 
people  together  for  social  and  cultural  improvement 
has  a  psychic  value  that  leads  to  mutual  under- 
standing and  systematic  cooperation.  In  this  way 
individualism  is  conquered  and  selfish  persons 
changed  into  useful  members  of  the  cooperative 
group. 

Among  the  social  and  cultural  activities  in  one 
of  the  best  organized  rural  communities  of  my 
knowledge    is    the    Young    People's    Story-Teller's 


'National  Headquarters  of  the  Camp-Fire  Girls,  461   Fourth  Avenue, 
New  York  City. 


68       THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

League.  The  young  people  meet  two  evenings  each 
month  under  the  direction  of  appointed  leaders  for 
two  hours  of  pleasure  and  pastime  at  story-telling. 
Sometimes  the  program  of  stories  is  taken  from 
Greek  literature.  Other  times  it  is  made  up  from 
the  folk-lore  of  the  Danes,  the  Scotch,  the  Hindus, 
the  American  negro,  or  some  other  interesting 
people.  One  time,  I  remember,  the  program  was 
confined  entirely  to  O.  Henry,  and  another  time  to 
Hawthorne.  Again  the  program  was  of  a  miscel- 
laneous character,  including  the  stories  of  "Little 
Black  Sambo  and  the  Three  Tigers,"  "How  the 
Camel  Got  His  Hump,"  "The  Mongoose,"  by 
Strickland  Gillilan,  and  several  others  highly 
appropriate  for  the  occasion. 

Most  of  this  group  of  young  people  have  learned 
how  to  tell  a  story  in  a  forceful,  interesting  manner. 
Their  personalities  and  powers  of  speech  have  been 
greatly  strengthened  by  this  practise.  Besides  that, 
the  evenings  spent  in  story-telling  constitute  happy 
chapters  in  the  lives  of  all  the  people  in  attendance. 
They  have  been  a  valuable  contributing  influence  to 
the  present  high  state  of  social  and  economic  soli- 
darity in  that  school  district.  They  are  worthy  of 
duplication  in  many  other  places  where  talented 
young  people  reside. 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL       6<J 

5.  The  Young  People's  Reading  Circle. — In  a 
few  instances  the  reading  circle  for  the  senior  young 
people  has  proved  quite  popular.  This  organi- 
zation usually  includes  a  homogeneous  group, 
seldom  exceeding  fifteen  in  number,  composed  of 
teachers,  grown  pupils  and  young  people  not  in 
school.  It  may  meet  at  the  schoolhouse  or  at  the 
homes  of  different  members  of  the  circle  from  time 
to  time. 

In  one  village  the  reading  circle  of  fourteen 
persons  meets  at  the  home  of  some  one  of  its  mem- 
bers every  Friday  evening  at  eight  o'clock.  While 
this  plan  is  working  successfully  at  that  place,  I 
would  not  recommend  it  for  general  practise.  The 
reading-room  of  the  schoolhouse  is,  as  a  rule,  the 
more  logical  meeting-place. 

I  have  been  present  at  two  meetings  of  reading 
circles  in  rural  places  the  past  year.  At  one  meet- 
ing Bryant's  "Thanatopsis"  was  read  and  discussed ; 
at  the  other  Hawthorne's  "Great  Stone  Face"  was 
the  lesson  for  the  evening.  Both  of  these  occasions 
were  social  and  cultured  feasts  for  all  present. 

The  reading  circle  well  conducted  has  great  pos- 
sibilities as  an  allied  school  activity.  It  should  be 
more  generally  encouraged  by  all  teachers  in  rural 
districts. 


"/O       THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

6.  The  Interscholastic  League.— For  the  last 
nine  years  contests  of  various  sorts  among-  the  pub- 
lic schools  of  Texas  have  been  promoted  by  the 
University.  They  now  include  contests  in  debat- 
ing, declamation,  essay  writing,  spelling  and 
athletics.  More  than  two  thousand  five  hundred 
schools  were  members  of  the  Interscholastic  League 
organization  last  year. 

The  league  contests  have  done  much  to  awaken 
school  spirit  among  pupils  and  patrons.  Their 
object  is  to  bring  the  competitive  instincts  into  action 
and  foster  the  spirit  of  friendly  rivalry  among 
neighboring  school  communities.  Schools  are 
always  proud  of  their  winning  champions.  And 
the  champions  themselves  are  abundantly  com- 
pensated for  all  their  efforts  through  the  enjoyment 
of  a  new  and  inspiring  self-confidence,  the  result 
and  side  companion  of  successful  achievement. 

The  interscholastic  debates  and  declamations 
have  been  wonderful  engines  of  education  in  this 
state  for  the  past  five  or  six  years.  It  is  estimated 
that  three  hundred  thousand  people  heard  the 
patriotic  declamations  given  last  year.  The  debates 
on  Compulsory  Education  and  Woman  Suffrage 
had  a  tremendous  influence  on  public  opinion  in 
their  time  and  were,  no  doubt,  instrumental  in  ha- 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL       J I 

stening  the  day  when  new  laws  relating  to  them  were 
written  on  our  statute  books. 

The  athletic  contests  are  doing  much  to  purify 
interscholastic  sports.  Less  than  a  decade  ago 
school  athletics  in  Texas  were  deplorably  corrupt. 
But  shoddy  tricks  and  foul  plays  to  win  are  now 
much  less  prevalent.  Honesty  in  athletics  is 
achieving  popularity,  and  crookedness  is  being 
branded  with  the  odium  of  public  disapproval.  New 
conceptions  of  good  sport  are  being  established. 
Teams  are  learning  how  to  contest  for  the  sake  of 
the  sport  and  not  merely  to  win  the  game. 

Membership  in  the  Interscholastic  League  has 
become  a  popular  thing  for  public  schools  of  every 
rank  in  Texas.  It  has  given  many  schools  a  chance 
to  prove  themselves  and  get  on  the  educational  map. 
And  in  using  the  League  to  promote  community 
welfare,  teachers  should  not  overlook  the  fact  that 
they  are  also  establishing  a  reputation  for  them- 
selves that  will  likely  lead  to  promotion.  Every 
state  in  the  South  should  have  such  an  organization 
as  the  Interscholastic  League  in  Texas. 

7.  The  Parent-Teacher's  Association. — The 
parent-teacher's  association  may  be  a  benefit  or  it 
may  be  a  detriment  to  the  welfare  of  the  public 
school.     I  have  seen  instances  of  both  results. 


*}2       THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

Where  there  is  cordial  and  sympathetic  coopera- 
tion between  the  head  of  the  school  and  the  leading 
spirits  of  the  association,  it  has  great  possibilities 
for  beneficial  service  to  the  school.  But  when  the 
association  presumptuously  takes  over  the  reins  of 
school  administration,  as  sometimes  happens,  fric- 
tion is  sure  to  come.  When  that  occurs,  the 
principal  of  the  school  is  usually  to  blame.  The 
far-sighted  principal  will  think  and  plan  in  advance 
of  the  association,  and  anticipating  possible  dis- 
agreements that  might  arise,  prevent  their  occur- 
rence through  the  assignment  of  duties  beset  with 
less  danger  to  the  peace  of  the  administration.  The 
best  way  to  handle  a  parent-teacher's  association  is 
through  the  judicious  assignment  of  work  for  it 
to  do. 

But  all  principals  of  schools  do  not  possess  the 
faculty  of  managing  a  parent-teacher's  association 
successfully.  One  day  the  principal  of  a  five- 
teacher  school  was  apparently  very  unhappy.  I 
ventured  to  ask  the  president  of  the  school  board 
what  was  wrong.  "He  is  sick;  he  has  the  worst 
case  of  Mothers'  Club  in  Texas,"  was  the  amusing 
reply.  This  trustee  was  entirely  correct.  A  few 
unsophisticated  mothers  had  the  upper  hand  and 
were  directing  most  of  the  internal  affairs  of  the 


^ 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL       73 

school.  They  had  prescribed  the  length  of  some 
of  the  class  periods,  selected  books  poorly  adapted 
to  the  needs  of  the  library,  wrecked  school  athletics, 
and  patronized  most  of  the  grafting  school  supply 
agents  that  came  their  way  that  year.  Indeed,  I 
saw  them  present  the  school  with  a  set  of  Stod- 
dard's Lectures  purchased  at  an  exorbitant  price, 
when  the  library  was  by  no  means  adequately  sup- 
plied with  elementary  reading  material  for  the  pupils 
below  the  eighth  grade.  That  principal  had 
abundant  cause  for  being  sick  and  unhappy. 

In  another  school  there  was  the  utmost  harmony 
between  the  mothers'  club  and  the  administration. 
The  playground  equipment  was  new  and  attractive. 
The  piano  and  some  very  appropriate  school  pic- 
tures had  been  purchased  the  year  before.  A  new 
Victrola  and  forty  records  had  just  been  procured. 
But  most  interesting  of  all  was  the  way  the  organized 
mothers  cooperated  in  equipping  the  domestic- 
science  laboratory  and  in  securing  the  teacher  of 
domestic  science. 

An  agricultural  laboratory  had  been  provided 
for  the  boys  in  high  school.  The  mothers  began 
saying:  "If  it  is  well  that  our  sons  become  more 
efficient  farmers,  is  it  not  equally  as  well  that  we 
prepare    our    daughters    for    greater    efficiency    as 


74       THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

farmers'  wives?  If  a  balanced  ration  for  a  pig,  a 
calf,  or  a  dairy  cow  be  a  matter  of  importance,  is 
not  a  balanced  ration  for  the  family  at  home  of  still 
greater  importance?"  So  the  principal  of  the 
school,  seizing  the  opportunity,  inspired  them  to 
make  the  effort  to  raise  funds  for  the  purchase  of 
laboratory  equipment  and  the  employment  of  a 
domestic-science  teacher.  They  accomplished  what 
they  undertook.  Standard  apparatus  was  installed 
and  a  competent  teacher  employed.  But  the  four 
teachers  already  employed  constituted,  in  practise, 
a  standing  advisory  committee  to  this  mothers'  club 
in  all  it  did.  These  teachers  were  sagacious  experts 
in  the  administration  of  school  affairs,  and  through 
them  the  organized  mothers  had  learned  that  it  is 
better  to  cooperate  than  to  dictate.  So,  after  all, 
the  secret  of  managing-  a  mothers'  club  rests  in  the 
teacher's  ability  to  assign  it  timely  and  appropriate 
things  to  do  and  to  cooperate  with  it  as  a  sort  of 
silent  partner  and  confidential  adviser  in  the 
accomplishment  of  the  duties  assigned. 

8.  Other  Vitalizing  Activities. — Several  other 
agencies  for  unifying  the  interests  of  young  people 
and  stimulating  the  cooperative  instincts  among 
them  might  be  mentioned.  Among  them  I  would 
name  the  dramatic  club,  choral  club,  orchestra,  liter- 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL       75 

ary  society,  and  the  various  industrial  clubs  for  boys 
and  girls:  corn  clubs,  pig  clubs,  poultry  clubs,  can- 
ning clubs,  sewing  circles  and  the  like.  For  the 
community  at  large  there  are  the  fair  association, 
pure  seed  association,  breeders'  association,  coop- 
erative marketing  association,  etc. 

Not  all  the  projects  and  activities  mentioned  in 
this  chapter  are  ever  practicable  or  even  desirable  in 
any  one  community,  but  there  are  many  com- 
munities where,  with  the  proper  adaptations,  one  or 
more  of  them  can  be  put  to  good  use.  Teachers 
will  do  well  to  keep  them  all  in  mind. 

THOUGHT  QUESTIONS 

i.  Name  some  school-improvement  projects  that 
fall  within  the  province  of  a  boys'  school-improvement 
association.  Show  how  the  boys'  school-improvement 
association  can  be  made  a  valuable  means  for  teaching 
practical  community  civics. 

2.  What  are  some  of  the  principles  that  the  Boy 
Scouts  stand  for?  What  are  some  of  the  qualifications 
of  a  good  Scout  Master? 

3.  What  are  some  of  the  qualifications  of  a  woman 
teacher  who  can  make  a  success  of  a  girls'  Camp- 
Fire  organization?  Describe  one  type  of  woman 
who  would  be  sure  to  fail  in  such  an  undertaking. 

4.  What  are  some  of  the  conditions  under  which  a 
story-teller's  league  might  reasonably  be  expected  to 
succeed?     Describe    a   group   of   young   people   who 


/6       THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

would  give  their  approval  and  support  to  such  an 
organization.  What  are  some  of  the  advantages  that 
telling  a  story  in  one's  own  language  has  over  telling 
it  in  the  exact  language  of  the  author? 

5.  Name  some  of  the  conditions  that  would  make 
a  young  people's  reading  circle  practicable.  Describe 
an  ideal  teacher  for  promoting  and  directing  a  reading 
circle. 

6.  Give  some  reasons  for  the  remarkable  success  of 
the  Interscholastic  League  in  Texas.  What  has  been 
its  influence  on  interscholastic  athletics?  To  what 
extent  has  public  opinion  been  influenced  by  the  inter- 
scholastic debates  and  declamations  ?  Would  it  be  well 
for  every  southern  state  to  have  an  organization  similar 
to  the  Interscholastic  League  in  Texas? 

7.  Name  some  of  the  benefits  to  be  derived  from 
the  parent-teacher's  association.  How  may  a  parent- 
teacher's  association  become  a  nuisance  to  a  school? 
Give  the  best  method  for  managing  a  parent-teacher's 
association. 

REFERENCES 

Cubberly,  Rural  Life  and  Education,  Houghton 
Mifflin  Company,  New  York  City. 

Curtis,  Play  and  Recreation  for  the  Open  Country, 
Macmillan  Company,  New  York  City. 

Puffer,  The  Boy  and  His  Gang,  Houghton  Mifflin 
Company,  New  York  City. 

Stern,  Neighborhood  Entertainments,  Sturgis  & 
Walton  Company,  New  York  City. 


CHAPTER  V 
School   Playgrounds 

i.  Playgrounds  and  Democracy. — After  three 
years  of  the  rebellion  in  Mexico,  an  intelligent 
refugee  said  to  me :  "I  wish  Mexico  had  the  play- 
grounds of  Texas.  They  would  soon  teach  our 
people  how  to  govern  themselves.  It  is  a  saying  as 
old  as  the  Greeks  that  the  playground  is  the  lab- 
oratory of  democracy.  And  very  truly  it  is.  It  is 
on  the  playground  in  the  early  years  of  childhood 
that  the  lessons  of  compromise,  give-and-take,  and 
respect  for  the  other  fellow  are  first  learned.  And 
these  concepts  are  of  fundamental  value  in  making 
citizens  for  a  democracy.  But  the  unfortunate 
children  of  my  country  have  poor  opportunities  for 
friendly  contests  among  themselves  on  the  play- 
grounds. We  have  very  few  playgrounds  down 
there. 

"Then,  again,"  he  said,  "the  games  that  interest 
our  people  are  not  like  your  games.  Our  people 
flock  about  the  bull-ring,  the  cock-pit  and  the  rou- 
lette wheel,  while  your  people  are  witnessing 
contests    on    the    football    gridiron,    the    baseball 

77 


78       THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

diamond  and  the  tennis  court.  Your  national  sports 
bring  into  action  a  group  of  interests  entirely  differ- 
ent from  those  elicited  by  the  recreational  practises 
of  my  land.  They  furnish  a  fine  background  in 
training  for  team-work  and  group  activities  in  local 
and  state  affairs." 

No  doubt  we  are  forgetful  of  the  values  of  our 
playgrounds.  They  are  so  commonplace  and  uni- 
versal that  we  do  not  appreciate  their  full  worth. 
We  accept  their  benefits  with  thorough  indiffer- 
ence. But  fortunate  is  America  that  the  playground 
is  an  indispensable  adjunct  of  her  public  schools. 

2.  Playgrounds  and  Juvenile  Delinquency. — 
Only  recently  I  visited  a  three-teacher  school  one 
Friday  afternoon.  The  principal's  face  bore  the 
unmistakable  impress  of  a  week  laden  with  worry 
and  exasperation.  She  characterized  a  group  of 
adolescent  boys  as  "positively  iniquitous."  They 
had  turned  a  man's  hogs  out  of  the  pen,  tied  a  dog 
and  a  cat  together  on  the  playground,  thrown  stones 
at  some  passers-by,  raided  a  pecan  orchard,  and 
dropped  some  live  ducks  into  the  school  cistern. 
The  truth  is,  they  had  the  teacher  bluffed  and 
they  knew  it. 

But  these  rowdy  youngsters  were  merely  normal 
boys.     They  were  the  sort  that  would  fight  for  an 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL       79 

estimable  senior  friend  and  leader  in  the  very  face 
of  grim  death.  Their  blood  was  red,  their  nerves 
full  of  vitality  and  their  muscles  tingling  for  action. 
I  saw  them  all.  I  talked  to  them  collectively  and 
to  most  of  them  individually.  They  were  fine 
young  fellows. 

What  was  the  trouble?  They  were  leaderless. 
They  were  ruddy  with  health,  and  in  each  one  of 
them  was  a  pent-up  reservoir  of  excess  energy  with 
no  provision  for  its  escape  through  the  activities  of 
a  well-regulated  playground.  The  school  yard  was 
a  wilderness  of  weeds,  cobblestones  and  scraps  of 
old  paper.  There  was  not  a  single  piece  of  play- 
ground apparatus  in  sight.  The  pupils  were  not  en- 
couraged to  play.  They  ran  riot  at  recess.  They 
got  into  mischief  for  want  of  other  things  to  engage 
their  attention  during  the  hours  of  intermission. 

All  normal  boys  like  group  athletics  and  play- 
ground recreations.  Healthy  boys  are  creatures  of 
action  and  industry.  They  resent  uninteresting 
employment,  but  they  are  not  lazy.  One  of  the 
easiest  animals  on  earth  to  control  is  a  normal  boy. 
Give  him  something  he  likes  to  do  and  plenty  of  it. 
That  solves  the  difficulty.  The  boy  that  does  not 
respond  to  this  treatment  is  either  subnormal  or  in 
poor  health. 


SO       THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

3.  Playing  for  Sport  vs.  Playing  to  Win  the 
Game. — I  believe  the  Englishmen  are  better  sports- 
men than  the  Americans.  The  average  Englishman 
will  ask  you,  "Was  it  a  good  game?"  The  average 
American  will  ask  you,  "What  was  the  score?" 
The  Englishman  plays  for  the  sport.  The  Ameri- 
can plays  to  win  the  game. 

And  the  same  spirit  dominates  most  of  the 
American  sportsmen  in  field  with  gun  or  on  stream 
with  fishing  rod.  Every  year  I  go  to  the  Texas 
coast  with  a  party  of  fifteen  for  a  week's  fishing  in 
the  surf.  The  only  measure  of  sportsmanship  some 
of  those  good  fellows  have  is  the  fulness  of  the  creel. 
Their  first  inquiry  is,  "How  many  this  morning, 
and  how  big  are  they?"  Seldom  do  they  ask. 
"How7  did  you  get  them,  and  what  sorts  of  baits  and 
lures  did  you  use?"  With  an  hour  of  skilful 
maneuvering-  the  real  sportsman  will  conquer  a  one- 
hundred-pound  tarpon  with  a  delicate  number  twelve 
line,  while  the  pseudo-sportsman  and  semi-savage 
will  overpower  him  and  drag  him  in,  hand  over,  with 
a  cord  strong  enough  for  hawser  in  less  than  two 
minutes. 

We  have  those  from  the  field,  stream  and  athletic 
court  who  pose  as  sportsmen  who,  in  truth,  have 
never  learned  the  first  letter  in  the  alphabet  of  clean 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL       8l 

high-class  sport.  These  savages  are  on  the  side- 
lines at  every  athletic  contest  and  in  the  ranks  of 
almost  every  hunting  and  fishing  party.  Xot  long 
ago  I  was  in  an  all-night  fox  hunt.  The  fox,  tired 
and  exhausted,  was  bayed  in  a  huge  oak  tree  just 
before  day.  Then  some  unsportsman-like  brutes 
came  from  a  neighboring  farm-house.  "Chunk  him 
out  and  let  the  dogs  kill  him,"  they  began  to  ejac- 
ulate. "No,"  interrupted  a  high-minded  sportsman. 
"Leave  him  alone  and  we  shall  have  another  fine 
race  some  night  next  week." 

Many  a  time  in  the  primitive  days  of  less  than 
twenty  years  ago  I  heard  spectators  shout  to  the 
football  contestants,  "Use  'em  rough !  Hit  'em 
hard!  Kill  "em!"  And  cracked  heads,  bleeding 
noses  and  promiscuous  bruises  gave  convincing 
attestations  that  the  murderous  instincts  of  the 
players  responded  to  these  gruesome  promptings 
with  all  the  ferocity  of  the  ancient  jungle.  But  a 
new  day  dawned  and  is  now  well  advanced  in  col- 
lege sports.  Intercollegiate  athletics  are  infinitely 
cleaner  than  they  were  a  dozen  years  ago.  Our 
college  people  are  learning  how  to  play.  But  many 
of  the  country  people  have  not  yet  learned  how  to 
play  or  what  to  play  for.  "Rotten  umpire."  "Put 
'em  out,"  and  all  sorts  of  rude  jeers  at  the  players 


82       THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

are  much  more  common  in  the  country  than  in  our 
city  ball  parks. 

Last  year  I  saw  a  country  ball  game  terminate 
in  a  free-for-all  fight.  Bats,  mits  and  masks  flew 
recklessly  in  the  air.  Blue  epithets  whizzed  in  all 
directions.  After  the  storm  had  subsided,  a  vener- 
able man  calmly  remarked,  "Well,  if  the  boys 
could  play  oftener,  they  might  learn  how  to  play 
without  fighting."  He  was  correct.  To  prohibit 
baseball  till  boys  learn  how  to  play  would  be  as 
absurd  as  prohibiting  them  from  going  in  the  water 
till  they  learn  to  swim.  Country  boys  will  learn  to 
play  agreeably  and  what  to  play  for  when  the  school 
playgrounds  are  used  more  intensively  and  super- 
vised more  closely. 

4.  Interscholastic  Athletics. — Friendly  rivalry 
fosters  school  spirit.  It  begets  loyalty  for  the  home 
team.  Every  community  looks  upon  its  own  cham- 
pions with  pride.  Interscholastic  contests  also  blot 
out  much  of  petty  narrowness  by  giving  pupils  a 
broader  acquaintance.  The  knowledge  "that  there 
are  other  people  beyond  the  mountains"  makes  a 
chapter  of  no  inconsequential  value  in  a  child's  edu- 
cation. I  was  reared  in  a  quiet  country  district.  We 
never  went  very  far  from  home  or  saw  very  much  of 
other  people.   The  local  pastor  often  told  us  we  were 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL       83 

the  brightest,  most  promising  children  he  had  ever 
seen.  The  politicians  came  out  occasionally  and  told 
us  the  same  thing.  In  our  childish  innocence,  we  be- 
lieved what  they  said.  I  thought  that  we  had  the 
best  church  choir,  the  prettiest  girls,  the  handsomest 
carriages  and  the  biggest  houses  in  the  land.  We 
were  the  Boston  of  culture  and  the  hub  of  the  uni- 
verse. We  were  in  the  center  of  all  that  was  worth 
emulating  and  living  for.  We  were  It.  But  when 
I  grew  older  and  saw  farther,  my  childish  eyes  were 
disillusioned.  It  was  a  revelation  to  me  that  the 
next  community  had  as  pretty  girls,  as  sweet 
singers,  as  well-groomed  horses  and  as  big  houses 
as  we.  And  I  find  there  are  some  children  in  the 
world  to-day  just  as  self-centered  as  I  was  as  a 
child. 

Interscholastic  athletics  also  give  a  fine  training 
in  minor  responsibilities.  The  captains,  managers, 
treasurers  and  secretaries  of  the  teams  participate 
in  these  responsibilities.  Games  have  to  be  sched- 
uled, equipments  procured  and  transportation 
provided.  The  adroit  teacher  will  delegate  most 
of  these  duties  to  the  pupils'  representatives,  reserv- 
ing advisory  and  veto  powers  to  himself. 

But  athletic  contests  are  beset  with  certain  diffi- 
culties and  disadvantages.     Chief  among  these  are 


84       THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

providing  suitable  chaperons  for  the  teams  on  trips 
away  from  home ;  taking  time  out  of  school  for 
playing  match  games ;  and  annoyances  from  cheap 
"barber-shop"  sports  not  in  school  who  encourage 
foul  plays  in  order  to  win.  No  high-school  team 
should  ever  be  sent  away  from  home  to  fill  an  en- 
gagement without  a  responsible  adult  chaperon, 
preferably  a  member  of  the  faculty.  Protests 
against  taking  time  out  of  school  for  match  games 
can  usually  be  met  satisfactorily  by  scheduling 
games  on  Saturdays.  Corrupt  coaching  from  low- 
bred outsiders  can  best  be  combated  through  the 
sense  of  honor  and  the  respect  for  fair  play  and 
clean  sportsmanship  instilled  into  the  pupils  by  the 
teacher  in  the  class-room  and  on  the  supervised 
playground  while  the  teams  are  in  training. 

5.  Teachers  and  Parents  Not  in  Sympathy  with 
Athletic  Sports — A  sick  man  aroused  himself  from 
a  delirious  stupor  and  said :  "I  have  passed  through 
the  most  miserable  hour  of  my  life.  I  have  been 
dreaming  that  I  had  turned  to  a  woodpile."  And  so 
it  is.  There  are  some  living  people  who  have  let 
portions  of  their  natures  die  as  dead  as  woodpiles 
and  haystacks.  They  have  all  their  physical  mem- 
bers, but  they  go  limping  through  life  with  a  half,  or 
a  fourth,  or  a  fortieth  of  their  normal  spiritual  en- 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL       85 

tities  gone.  They  have  forgot  that  they  once  en- 
joyed the  things  that  normal  children  and  young 
people  of  to-day  enjoy.  The  most  unpardonable  of 
these  distorted  unfortunates  are  certain  grouchy  old 
bachelors  and  old  maids  in  the  school-room. 

The  following  story  and  confession  came  to  me 
from  a  man  I  know  very  well.  "I  can  get  very 
little  out  of  an  athletic  contest,"  he  said.  "I  live 
near  a  college  athletic  court,  but  I  have  not  seen  a 
game  in  five  years.  When  the  games  are  on,  I  hear 
the  band  playing  and  five  thousand  voices  singing 
college  songs  fit  to  go  into  ecstasies,  but  it  all  has 
no  lure  for  me.  Sometimes  I  view  myself  with 
pity  as  I  sit  in  my  office  all  too  conscious  of  my 
incapacity  to  share  in  the  merriment  about  me. 

"Eight  years  ago,  in  the  psychological  laboratory, 
I  was  convinced  of  my  subnormality  in  this  respect. 
I  immediately  set  about  to  cure  it.  I  went  to  the 
athletic  headquarters  and  purchased  a  season  ticket 
to  all  the  games  for  the  year.  There  were  thirty- 
two  events  on  it.  I  was  determined  to  make  myself 
go  and  get  into  the  spirit  of  the  contests.  Four 
events  had  passed,  and  I  discovered  I  had  attended 
none  of  them.  Then  I  renewed  my  resolutions  and 
purchased  another  ticket.  I  thought  I  would 
take   some   charitable    friend    along  with    me   who 


86       THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

knew  the  games  and  would  help  me  get  into  the 
spirit  of  them.  But  when  the  year  was  over  one  of 
the  tickets  had  twenty-eight  untaken  events  on  it 
and  the  other  had  twenty-six.  I  still  have  them 
both. 

"Ten  years  ago  I  taught  in  a  small  college. 
During  my  two  years  there  I  was  the  most  unpop- 
ular male  member  of  the  entire  faculty  with  the 
boys  who  loved  athletic  sports.  I  had  very  little 
sympathy  with  such  activities.  I  could  see  but  little 
else  in  them  than  a  waste  of  time.  I  know  now  I 
was  unfair  to  the  boys  in  some  instances.  I 
have  come  to  see  that  the  trouble  was  not  with  the 
boys.  It  was  with  me.  They  were  healthy  nor- 
mal fellows.  As  for  the  enjoyment  of  the 
competitive  sports  on  the  athletic  field,  I  was  an 
anemic  monstrosity. 

"I  regret  my  inability  to  appreciate  a  ball  game. 
But  a  thing  still  more  deplorable  is  the  fact  that 
there  are  so  many  parents,  school  trustees  and 
teachers  just  as  deeply  afflicted  with  similar  inca- 
pacities who  have  never  once  realized  it.  It  is 
criminally  unjust  for  them  to  exercise  authority  over 
children  and  young  people  in  school.  It  would  pay 
every  teacher  introspectively  to  take  stock  of  him- 
self occasionally  and  see  just  where  he  stands.     I 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL      87 

think  I  could  deal  much  more  fairly  with  boys  now 
than  I  did  ten  years  ago.  I  know  more  about 
myself." 

THOUGHT  QUESTIONS 

1.  How  may  regard  for  law  and  respect  for  the 
rights  of  others  be  taught  on  a  basketball  court? 
Democratic  government  is  nothing  more  than  team- 
work for  group  betterment  on  a  gigantic  scale.  Its 
benefits  are  the  fruits  of  cooperation.  Show  how  the 
spirit  of  team-work  and  cooperation  is  stimulated  by 
baseball. 

2.  Will  giving  a  bad  boy  something  he  likes  to  do 
make  him  less  difficult  to  control?  Why  do  boys 
without  interesting  employment  on  the  playground  so 
often  get  into  mischief  at  recess?  Are  normal  boys 
naturally  good  or  bad?  Is  there  any  creature  more 
devotedly  loyal  to  an  estimable  leader  than  a  boy? 

3.  Why  is  the  average  Englishman  a  better  sports- 
man than  the  average  American?  Do  your  pupils  play 
for  the  sport  or  to  win  the  game?  Account  for  inter- 
scholastic  athletics  being  purer  than  they  were  ten 
years  ago.  Why  are  fights  more  frequent  among 
country  baseball  teams  than  among  college  baseball 
teams  ? 

4.  What  are  some  of  the  beneficial  results  from 
friendly  rivalry  among  neighboring  schools?  Why 
should  the  teacher  always  have  advisory  and  veto 
powers  on  the  students'  athletic  councils?  Do  you 
allow  your  basketball  team  to  go  away  from  home 
unchaperoned  by  some  teacher  or  other  responsible 
person?  Do  your  trustees  protest  against  taking  time 
out    of    school    for    match    games?      Are    there    any 


iSiS       THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

unscrupulous  persons  not  in  school  who  would  corrupt 
the  minds  and  practises  of  your  players? 

5.  Are  you  a  lover  of  plays,  games  and  athletic 
sports  at  school?  How  many  adult  people  do  you 
know  whose  faculty  for  appreciating  athletic  contests 
is  dead  and  functionless?    How  about  yourself? 

REFERENCES 

Bancroft,  Games  for  the  School,  Home,  and 
Gymnasium,  Macmillan  Company,  New  York  City. 
(A  most  excellent  book.) 

Burchenal,  Folk  Dances  and  Singing  Games, 
G.  Schirmer,  Publisher,  New  York. 

Curtis,  Education  Through  Play,  Macmillan  Co., 
New  York. 

Curtis,  The  Reorganized  School  Playground,  Bulle- 
tin No.  16,  1912,  U.  S.  Bureau  of  Education,  Wash- 
ington, D.  C. 

Johnson,  Education  by  Plays  and  Games,  Ginn  &  Co.. 
New  York. 

Leland,  Playground  Technique  and  Playcraft,  F.  A. 
Bassett  &  Co.,  Springfield,  Mass.  (This  is  an  inval- 
uable book.) 

Mero,  American  Playgrounds,  The  Dale  Association, 
Boston,  Mass.  (One  of  the  very  best  publications  on 
playgrounds. ) 

State  Department  of  Education,  Bulletin  on  Play  and 
Recreation,  Richmond,  Va.  (Especially  valuable  for 
rural  schools.) 

University  of  Texas,  Play  and  Athletics,  Extension 
Bulletin,  No.  1842,  Austin,  Texas. 

Spaulding,  A.  G.,  Manufacturer  of  Sporting  Goods 
and  Playground  Apparatus,  Chicopee,  Mass. 


CHAPTER    VI 

The  Social  Factor  in  Rural  Life 

i.  The  Country  As  a  Victim  of  Inadequate 
Social  and  Cultural  Opportunities. — In  the  heart  of 
the  Cross-Timbers,  seventy-five  miles  west  of  Fort 
Worth  and  nine  miles  from  the  Fort  Worth  and 
Rio  Grande  Railroad,  is  a  small  country-school  dis- 
trict called  Selden.  In  the  fall  of  1905,  within  a 
single  month,  fifteen  young  people  from  that  place 
packed  their  trunk's  and  went  away  to  school. 
Some  of  the  farmers  estimated  that  their  going 
away  would  take  several  thousand  dollars  out  of  the 
community  to  be  spent  elsewhere.  Others  said  it 
would  be  economy  to  maintain  a  first-class  high 
school  at  home.  But  most  of  them  failed  to  see 
that  the  loss  of  the  presence  and  good  influence  of 
those  young  people  was  far  more  serious  than  the 
cost  of  maintaining  them  in  the  schools  they  had 
chosen  to  attend. 

I  was  in  that  community  two  months  later.     The 

experience  was  most  depressing.     The  church  choir 

had  lost  much  of  its  best  material.    The  choir  leader 

and   the    pianist    were    both    gone.      The    Sunday- 

89 


90      THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

school  was  sadly  depleted.  The  superintendent  was 
discouraged.  The  whole  place  seemed  desolate, 
bereaved  and  melancholy. 

That  community  had  paid  the  penalty  attached 
to  social  and  educational  neglect.  It  had  failed  to 
satisfy  the  social  and  cultural  hungers  of  its  most 
enterprising  young  people.  Some  of  its  most  vital 
blood  had  been  taken  from  its  veins.  It  was  im- 
poverished by  the  absence  of  some  of  the  people  it 
could  least  afford  to  lose.  And  what  is  worse  still, 
only  two  of  that  entire  group  of  fifteen  virile  young 
persons  have  returned  to  that  community  to  make 
it  their  permanent  home,  and  ten  of  the  remaining 
thirteen  have  gone  to  the  towns  and  cities  to  live. 

One  time  I  made  a  close  examination  of  a  rural 
school  with  four  teachers  where  eight  boys  were 
doing  high-school  work.  I  asked  these  boys  what 
they  meant  to  do  after  graduation.  "We  want  to 
attend  a  business  college  and  equip  ourselves  to  hold 
positions  in  the  city,"  was  the  unanimous  reply. 
They  gave  no  particular  reason  for  not  wanting  to 
stay  in  the  country  more  than  that  it  did  not  suit 
them.     Note  the  following  questions  and  answers: 

"What  do  you  do  for  pastime?" 

"Well,  nothing  specially." 

"Have  you  a  ball  team?" 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL      91 

"Yes,  but  it's  mighty  weak." 

"Have  you  a  tennis  team?" 

"No." 

"Have  you  a  dramatic  club?" 

"No." 

"Have  you  a  musical  organization  of  any  sort?" 

"No." 

"When  have  you  had  a  public  gathering  in  the 
school  auditorium?" 

"Not  since  November;  almost  three  months." 

"What  do  you  do  when  Sunday  comes?" 

"Sometimes  we  go  to  church,  when  there  is  any." 

"How  often  do  you  have  church  services?" 

"Once  a  month  at  one  of  the  churches,  and  just 
whenever  they  can  get  a  preacher  at  the  other  one." 

Who  could  blame  those  boys  for  not  wanting  to 
stay  at  that  place  ?  They  were  dying  of  social  hun- 
ger. Their  desire  to  get  away  was  one  of  the  verty 
best  evidences  that  there  was  something  in  each  of 
them  inherently  worth  while.  Had  they  been  con- 
tented to  remain  in  that  monotonous  environment, 
it  would  have  been  because  they  were  genuinelv 
stupid  fellows. 

Thus  the  town  continues  to  levy  a  tribute  on  th£ 
country  which  it  takes  each  year  in  the  form  o : 
some  of  its  very  best  blood.      Biologically,   som<: 


92       THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

scientists  think  that  this  means  a  rapid  lowering  of 
the  life  tension  and  blood  vigor  of  the  country  people. 
Those  remaining  behind  become  the  dominant  stock 
and  reproduce  their  kind  for  another  generation. 
Upon  them  the  same  selective  process  is  repeated. 
The  country  has  cause  for  alarm.  Normal  people 
like  to  be  where  things  are  happening.  Solitude 
and  ignorance  are  contrary  to  their  desires.  If  the 
opportunities  for  culture  and  social  recreation  are 
not  provided  for  them  in  the  country,  they  will  seek 
them  elsewhere. 

2.  The  Social  Factor  as  a  Moral  Force. — 
Nearly  five  years  ago,  in  the  course  of  a  lecture  in 
a  small  country  town,  the  question  was  asked. 
"Where  is  the  social  center  in  this  village?"  "The 
barber-shop,"  a  voice  replied.  The  speaker  had 
been  in  that  barber-shop,  the  only  one  in  the  village, 
just  before  coming  to  the  auditorium.  Through  the 
half-open  door  in  the  rear  he  got  the  full  benefit  of 
all  the  foul  vapors  from  that  unwholesome  place. 
Since  that  time  I  have  collected  and  tabulated  a  list 
of  one  hundred  and  thirty-two  social  centers  in  rural 
and  village  districts  where  I  have  been.  They  run, 
as  follows:  barber-shop,  twenty-six;  depot.  twent\ 
one;  drug-store,  eighteen;  post-office,  seventeen 
country  store,   fifteen;  garage,   eight;  schoolhouse 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL       93 

eight;  picture  show,  five;  blacksmith  shop,  five; 
school  playground,  five;  livery  stable,  two;  churcr, 
two.  There  is  no  community  without  a  social  cer  - 
ter  of  some  sort.  The  social  center  is  the  mojt 
popular  congregating  place  for  conversation,  games, 
or  idle  pastime.  Some  of  them  are  places  where 
boys  and  girls  meet,  some  are  for  boys  only,  and 
some  for  boys  and  men  of  all  ages. 

In  a  certain  dismal  little  village  in  Texas  the  old 
abandoned  blacksmith  shop  with  the  roof  caved  in 
at  one  corner  is  the  young  men's  social  gathering 
place.  Here  they  congregate  and  pitch  horseshoes, 
play  dominoes,  chew  tobacco,  smoke,  swear,  fight 
and  tell  indecent  stories.  The  last  time  I  was  at 
that  place  the  justice  of  the  peace's  court  was  in  ses- 
sion in  the  shade  of  a  big  oak  tree.  I  counted 
seventy-nine  men  and  boys  of  the  community  present 
at  the  meeting.  In  addition  to  them  were  four  law- 
vers  and  two  newspaper  men  from  the  county-seat. 
There  were  seventeen  cases  on  the  court's  docket 
for  the  day.  They  consisted  of  gaming,  fighting, 
drunkenness  and  profanity. 

Most  of  this  group  of  defendants  were  boys  of 
o-ood  ability.  They  did  not  look  like  a  set  of  moral 
imbeciles.  They  were  merely  the  unsuspecting 
victims   of   vicious    surroundings.      Their   environ- 


94       THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

merit  was  a  culture  medium  for  vagabonds,  crim- 
inals and  fugitives  from  justice.  They  were  to  be 
pitied  rather  than  censured.  The  temptations  to 
mischief  were  not  properly  offset  by  other  things. 

I  fixed  the  responsibility  for  his  morbid  social 
condition  where  I  think  it  belonged.  I  placed  it  at 
the  doors  of  the  school  and  the  church,  of  the 
teachers  and  the  preachers.  They  were  all  derelict 
in  the  performance  of  the  tasks  set  before  them.  Had 
the  church  been  laboring  for  the  social  and  moral  re- 
generation of  that  community  as  earnestly  as  it  was 
for  the  salvation  of  individual  souls  in  its  conven- 
tional services  held  once  a  month,  the  moral  fiber  of 
those  young  men  would  have  been  appreciably 
stronger.  Had  the  school  been  as  conscious  of  its 
social  obligations  to  those  people  as  it  was  desirous 
of  maintaining  its  venerable  standards  of  formal 
instruction,  the  roster  of  defendants  before  the  jus- 
tice's court  would  have  been  numerically  smaller. 
Had  there  been  the  proper  coordination  of  religious, 
educative  and  recreational  activities  at  that  place, 
much  social  waste  could  have  been  eliminated  and 
some  valuable  human  assets  prevented  from  becom- 
ing social  liabilities. 

In  a  certain  Swedish  community  ten  miles  from 
the   railroad   there   is   a   beautiful   country   church. 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL      95 

The  lawns  are  neatly  kept,  and  there  are  two  tennis 
courts  in  the  churchyard.  The  pastor  of  the  church 
is  president  of  the  local  school  board  and  has  served 
in  that  capacity  for  a  number  of  years.  He  helped 
organize  the  band,  containing  fourteen  instruments, 
and  has  given  much  valuable  assistance  to  the 
athletic  teams  and  the  social  activities  of  his  people. 

In  an  interview  this  man  said  to  me :  "Our  young 
people  do  not  care  to  go  away  to  the  city  for  their 
amusements.  We  try  to  provide  entertainment  for 
them  here  at  home.  We  think  it  a  good  way  to 
prevent  mischief  and  make  leisure  hours  profitable. 
I  have  resided  here  for  eleven  years  and  there  has 
never  been  a  young  man  arraigned  before  the 
courts  for  a  misdemeanor  of  any  sort  during  that 
time." 

The  desire  for  play  and  social  merriment  is  as 
elemental  as  the  law  of  gravitation.  A  modicum 
of  leisure  rightly  employed  is  a  necessary  con- 
comitant of  health  and  happiness.  No  hours  have 
so  much  to  do  with  the  making  or  the  marring  of 
human  character  as  hours  of  leisure.  They  are 
fraught  with  the  greatest  possibilities  for  good  and 
for  evil.  Most  people  who  go  wrong,  commit 
crimes,  or  get  others  into  trouble  do  so  during  hours 
of  leisure  given  over  to  idleness. 


96       THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

With  more  decent  church  lawns  used  as  com- 
munity playgrounds,  and  with  more  schoolhouses 
put  to  practical  use  as  places  of  amusement  and 
social  resort  by  preachers,  teachers  and  laymen  who 
know  how  to  direct  people,  an  environment  much 
less  hostile  to  good  morals  can  be  created.  Therein 
lies  one  of  the  greatest  possibilities  for  reducing  the 
present  high  percentage  of  crime  and  moral  delin- 
quency among  our  youth. 

3.  Beware  of  Moving  Country  Children  to 
Town  to  Live. — Moving  a  family  of  adolescent  chil- 
dren from  the  country  to  town  is  a  hazardous 
experiment.  The  country  child  with  its  desires  to 
see  and  its  passions  for  adventure  is  an  easy  prey  for 
the  evils  of  the  city.  The  newness  of  the  environ- 
ment and  the  over-stimulation  of  the  senses  is  more 
than  the  average  country-bred  child  at  the  age  of 
adolescence  can  bear  with  safety.  Note  the  follow- 
ing observations : 

During  a  period  of  eight  years,  1899- 1907,  forty- 
seven  country  families  moved  into  a  certain  Texas 
town  of  less  than  five  thousand  population  to  send 
their  children  to  school.  Belonging  to  these  families 
were  sixty-two  children  above  sixteen  years  of  age 
and  thirty-seven  children  from  thirteen  to  sixteen 
years   old  when  they  came  to  town.     A   study  of 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL       9/ 

these  families  was  made  in  191 1.  Forty-nine  of  the 
sixty-two  children  in  the  older  group  were  ranked 
as  studious  while  they  were  in  school,  and  forty-one 
were  succeeding  in  the  work  they  had  subsequently 
chosen  to  follow.  Of  the  thirty-seven  in  the 
younger  group,  not  a  single  one  had  made  a 
creditable  success  at  anything.  Two  were  in  the 
penitentiary,  nine  were  classed  as  street  loafers,  two 
as  professional  gamblers,  and  the  rest  were  without 
a  purpose  in  life. 

It  is  a  great  misfortune  to  the  average  child  to  be 
taken  from  a  quiet  country  environment  to  the  noise 
of  town  during  the  restless  days  of  adolescence. 
It  costs  money  to  provide  social  advantages  and 
educational  opportunities  in  the  country,  but  it  often 
costs  character  to  move  children  to  town  at  this 
critical  time  in  life. 

4.  The  Social  Factor  As  a  Stimulus  to  Coop- 
eration.— Prior  to  the  World  War  there  were  ap- 
proximately eighteen  hundred  rural  credit  associa- 
tions in  Denmark  and  more  than  twice  that  number 
in  operation  in  Germany.*  In  Holland  and  Belgium 
cooperation  for  industrial  and  business  purposes 
among  the  peasant  people  was  also  highly  developed. 


'See   Wolff's  Peoples'  Banks. 


98      THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

By  doing  their  banking  and  borrowing  cooperatively, 
many  of  the  rural  people  were  their  own  lenders  and 
borrowers  of  money  at  low  rates  of  interest.  They 
knew  how  to  produce  and  how  to  market  cooper- 
atively. Creameries,  canneries,  packeries  and 
warehouses  had  been  operating  successfully  under 
the  cooperative  plan  among  rural  people  for  a  great 
many  years. 

In  America  the  case  is  quite  different.  Efforts 
at  industrial  cooperation  among  farmers  seldom 
meet  with  success.  The  Grange,  the  Farmers' 
Alliance,  and  the  Farmers'  Union  failed  to  accom- 
plish most  of  the  very  worthy  things  they  set  out 
to  do.  As  local  organizations  they  have  lived  and 
flourished  in  only  a  few  exceptional  communities. 

Industrial  cooperation  among  most  of  the  rural 
population  of  Western  Europe  seems  to  be  a  natural 
and  easy  thing,  but  in  America  it  is  next  to  impos- 
sible. Why  this  great  difference?  Is  it  due  to 
special  legislation  enacted  at  Copenhagen,  Berlin, 
Brussels  or  The  Hague?  No.  Is  it  due  to  a 
peculiarly  favored  economic  environment  enjoyed 
by  the  European  peasants?  Not  directly  so.  It  is 
due,  in  the  main,  to  a  difference  in  social  attitude. 

The  European  peasants  are  more  intimately 
acquainted    with    one   another   than    the   American 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL       99 

farmers  are.  Many  of  them  live  in  small  village 
communities.  They  see  one  another  every  day. 
There  is  much  social  life  among  them.  Neighbors 
meet  neighbors  and  have  opportunities  to  exchange 
ideas  during  their  hours  of  leisure  almost  every 
evening.  The  whole  environment  has  a  socializing 
tendency.  This  makes  for  community-mindedness. 
The  people  think  collectively  as  well  as  individually. 
Cooperation  follows  naturally  and  easily. 

In  most  places  the  rural  people  of  America  are 
great  strangers  to  one  another.  It  would  mean  much 
for  community  interests  in  general  if  friends  would 
meet  friends  and  neighbors  meet  neighbors  oftener 
than  they  ordinarily  do.  They  should  get  together 
oftener  just  for  the  sake  of  association.  An  aggre- 
gation of  strangers  can  never  make  a  team  of 
community  workers. 

A  rural-uplift  club  one  time  adopted  this  very 
appropriate  slogan:  "Come  out  and  get  acquainted 
with  your  neighbor.  You  may  like  him."  This 
would  be  an  appropriate  slogan  for  most  rural  com- 
munities in  the  agricultural  South.  To  have  effec- 
tive community  team-work  in  church,  school,  or  civic 
endeavor,  people  must  spend  enough  time  together 
to  know  one  another  and  catch  the  spirit  of  pulling 
together.     The  lack  of  easv  and  continuous  social 


IOO    THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

intercourse  for  country  people  constitutes  one  of  the 
greatest  weaknesses  in  American  rural  society. 

THOUGHT  QUESTIONS 

i.  The  families  of  best  influence  are  usually 
among  the  first  to  leave  the  country  because  of  unsatis- 
factory social  and  cultural  advantages.  What  biological 
effect  does  this  likely  have  on  the  ones  left  behind? 
What  is  the  effect  on  the  church  and  the  school  ? 

2.  Every  community  has  its  social  center.  Where 
is  the  social  center  in  your  community?  Name  some 
social  centers  you  have  seen?  Why  are  barber-shops, 
post-offices,  drug-stores  and  depots  so  often  the  centers 
of  social  exchange  in  small  places?  Would  the  schools 
and  the  churches  be  exceeding  their  provinces  to  try 
to  remedy  these  conditions?  Why  have  they  not 
already  made  the  attempt?  Show  that  some  leisure  is 
essential  to  health  and  happiness.  In  what  respect  are 
leisure  hours  dangerous  hours? 

3.  Why  is  it  so  dangerous  to  move  a  child  from 
the  country  to  town  at  the  age  of  adolescence? 

4.  Give  one  reason  why  industrial  cooperation 
among  the  peasants  of  Western  Europe  has  been  more 
successful  than  among  the  farmers  of  America.  How 
does  the  independence  and  isolation  of  the  American 
farmer  act  as  a  barrier  against  cooperation  ? 

REFERENCES 

Butterfield,  The  Country  Church  and  the  Rural 
Problem,  University  of  Chicago  Press,  Chicago,  111. 

Fiske,  The  Challenge  of  the  Country,  Association 
Press,  New  York  Citv. 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL    IOI 

Quick,  The  Brown  Mouse,  Bobbs-Merrill  Co., 
Indianapolis,  Ind. 

Quick,  The  Fairview  Idea,  Bobbs-Merrill  Co., 
Indianapolis,  Ind. 

Wilson,  The  Church  of  the  Open  Country,  The 
Pilgrim  Press,  Boston,  Mass. 


CHAPTER    VII 
Making  Better  Citizens 

i.  Teachers  of  Civics  Must  Get  a  New  Point 
of  View. — I  found  in  the  white  schools  of  fourteen 
contiguous  school  districts  embracing  a  rural  popula- 
tion of  more  than  thirteen  thousand  people  that  only 
one  pupil  in  each  seventeen  had  ever  recited  a  lesson 
in  civics.  Most  of  those  of  free  school  age  had 
dropped  out  of  school  before  reaching  the  grade  in 
which  civics  is  taught.  This  does  not  augur  well 
for  the  future  of  democracy.  The  times  are  dan- 
gerously unsettled.  In  some  quarters  the  outlook 
is  desperate.  There  is  serious  need  for  constructive 
training  in  citizenship. 

Civics  as  now  taught  is  not  giving  that  training. 
It  is  quite  unattractive  to  the  mind  of  the  average 
student  below  college  rank.  It  misses  the  mark  of 
his  interests.  He  cares  little  about  the  framework 
of  government  and  the  eligibility  qualifications  of 
officials.  What  government  does,  rather  than 
what  it  is,  would  appeal  far  more  forcefully  to  him. 
Citizens  will  do  more  for  their  government  when 
they  understand  better  what  it  is  doing  for  them. 

1 02 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL    IO3 

Cox  is  my  neighbor  across  the  street.  He  is  a 
good  citizen  because  he  understands  and  appreciates 
all  the  things  the  government  is  doing  for  him.  Each 
morning  when  he  arises  he  washes  his  face  in  clear 
water  whose  purity  and  freedom  from  contagion 
are  safeguarded  by  the  city.  At  breakfast  he  has 
a  beefsteak  carved  from  a  carcass  bearing  the  blue 
stamp  of  the  federal  meat  inspector,  showing  that 
the  animal  was  in  good  health  and  fit  for  human 
food  when  slaughtered.  The  milk  on  the  table 
comes  from  a  clean  dairy  and  contains  no  harmful 
preservatives,  for  the  State  Pure  Food  Department 
sees  about  that.  After  breakfast  the  garbage  is 
gathered  and  put  into  a  receptacle  for  the  city  scav- 
enger to  carry  away,  and  the  dishwater  is  poured 
into  a  city-built  sewer  instead  of  a  disease-breeding 
sink-hole  in  the  back  yard.  Then  he  goes  to  town 
to  his  office  in  a  building  properly  lighted  and  copi- 
ously supplied  with  fresh  air  in  accordance  with 
the  building  laws.  At  eleven  o'clock  he  receives 
word  that  his  youngest  child  is  ill  and  hastily 
summons  a  doctor  licensed  by  the  State  Board  of 
Medical  Examiners,  and  the  doctor  issues  a  prescrip- 
tion to  be  filled  by  a  pharmacist  whose  qualifications 
have  been  attested  to  by  the  state.  While  all  this 
is  going  on,  the  older  children  of  the  family  are 


104    THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

away  at  school  under  the  direction  of  teachers 
whose  eligibility  has  been  certified  to  by  the  State 
Department  of  Education.  On  the  way  home  from 
school  in  the  afternoon  these  children  are  escorted 
over  a  dangerous  street  crossing  by  the  hand  of  a 
friendly  policeman.  That  night  neighbor  Cox's 
home  is  saved  from  complete  destruction  by  the 
speedy  and  efficient  service  of  the  city  fire 
department. 

Ten  miles  in  the  country,  near  the  Viola  school, 
lives  friend  Brown.  He  has  oranges,  bacon,  cof- 
fee, sugar,  sirup  and  waffles  for  breakfast,  brought 
to  him  from  five  states  by  the  railroads  at  reason- 
able rates  fixed  by  the  Interstate  Commerce 
Commission.  After  breakfast  his  twelve-year-old 
son  gathers  up  his  free  text-books  and  goes  to  school. 
By  ten  o'clock  the  rural  free  delivery  mail  has 
arrived.  Then  friend  Brown  drives  to  town  with  a 
load  of  cotton  over  a  public  highway  not  so  good  as 
it  should  be,  it  is  true,  but  far  better  than  the  primi- 
tive trails  his  pioneer  father  traveled.  He  has  his 
cotton  weighed  by  the  public  weigher  on  scales  that 
are  officially  correct.  During  the  afternoon,  before 
returning  home,  he  calls  on  his  widowed  sister, 
whose  rights  are  made  secure  against  violence  by 
the  protecting  law  and  order  of  the  day ;  he  applies 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL    105 

to  the  courts  for  redress  against  some  unfairness 
from  an  insurance  company ;  and  he  telephones  to 
the  State  Orphans'  Home  that  is  caring  for  two  des- 
titute children  of  a  former  friend  of  his.  At  every 
turn  through  the  day  friend  Brown  is  face  to  face 
with  the  services  his  government  is  rendering  him. 
Conscious  recognition  of  what  the  government 
is  doing  for  them  makes  better  citizens  of  neighbor 
Cox  and  friend  Brown.  Neighbor  Cox  contributes 
his  proportional  part  of  the  tax  for  the  support  of 
his  government  and  does  it  ungrudgingly.  He  was 
an  active  factor  in  getting  the  city  government 
changed  from  the  old  ward-aldermanic  plan  to  the 
commission  plan.  Friend  Brown  is  using  his  influ- 
ence with  the  electorate  at  Viola  to  have  capable 
men  put  into  state  and  county  offices.  Personally, 
he  does  not  like  the  present  road  commissioner,  but 
he  voted  for  him  because  he  knows  he  is  honest  and 
understands  scientific  road-building.  Efficiency 
and  honesty  are  the  major  requirements  of  those 
for  whom  he  casts  his  vote  and  influence.  He 
never  helps  promote  a  man  to  office  merely  because 
he  happens  to  be  a  good  fellow  or  an  old  friend. 
He  regards  the  interests  of  the  public  as  a  thousand- 
fold more  sacred  than  the  political  ambitions  of 
even  his  best  friend. 


106    THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

Teachers  of  civics  and  writers  of  civics  texts 
must  get  a  new  point  of  view.  They  must  teach  gov- 
ernment in  the  light  of  what  it  is  doing.  The  study 
of  its  structure  and  of  what  it  aims  to  do  is  insuffi- 
cient. Lessons  on  the  Constitution  are  not  getting 
close  enough  to  home.  The  activities  of  the  local 
units  of  government  at  Birmingham,  Podunk  and 
Centerville  are  of  more  immediate  interest. 

2.  The  Half-Patriotic  Citizen. — Good  men  and 
good  citizens  are  not  synonymous.  Many  good 
men  are  very  poor  citizens.  One  moderately  good 
man  moved  his  funds  from  an  Austin  bank  to  the 
village  of  Rockdale  to  avoid  the  payment  of  city 
taxes.  The  city  has  paved  the  streets  and  keeps 
them  swept  and  sprinkled  for  his  comfort.  He 
sends  his  children  to  the  city  schools.  On  evenings 
he  attends  free  lectures  in  the  school  auditorium  and 
free  concerts  in  the  city  park.  He  uses  city  water 
and  city  lights.  He  accepts  and  enjoys  the  refining 
atmosphere  of  a  delightful  civilization.  But  he 
declines  to  pay  his  part  of  the  bills.  He  is  a  scab 
on  the  body  politic,  and  his  more  thoughtful  neigh- 
bors silently  regard  him  with  loathing  disgust. 
Were  he  aware  of  the  smallness  of  his  shriveled 
soul  and  the  low  esteem  in  which  he  is  held  by  ob- 
serving, thinking  people,  he  would  not  make  false 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL    IO7 

renditions  of  his  personal  property  by  hiding  away 
vendor's  lien  notes,  bonds  and  bank  accounts  when 
the  tax  assessor  calls  to  see  him.  Had  he  known 
how  all  the  best  people  felt  toward  him,  he  would 
have  contributed  to  the  Red  Cross  and  subscribed 
punctually  for  his  quota  of  liberty  bonds  instead  of 
lagging  behind,  as  he  did,  thinking,  "Maybe  I  shall 
get  by  unobserved,"  until  one  day  he  was  called 
before  the  committee  and  the  reasons  demanded  for 
his  unpatriotic  indifference.  Then  he  gave  a  small 
pittance  to  the  Red  Cross  and  bought  bonds  spar- 
ingly merely  to  avoid  being  branded  a  slacker.  Still, 
he  is  no  bad  man,  as  present-day  moral  standards 
go.  He  belongs  to  the  church,  attends  to  his  own 
affairs,  meets  his  business  obligations  when  they 
come  due,  and  provides  liberally  for  his  family. 

But  the  covetous  man  is  not  the  only  poor  citizen 
within  the  ranks  of  moderately  good  people.  There 
are  the  careless  fellows.  One  of  them  butchered 
a  hog  and  allowed  the  blood  and  offal  to  be  thrown 
into  the  lake,  which  is  the  city's  source  of  water 
supply.  Schoolboys  throw  their  left-over  fish  bait 
into  the  water  to  putrefy  and  pollute  it,  and  picnic 
parties  take  boat  excursions  up  the  lake  and  cast 
the  remnants  of  their  luncheon  overboard  without  a 
word  of  protest  from  the  chaperons.     The  man  who 


108    THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

saw  the  contractor  cheating  the  county  by  putting  an 
inferior  grade  of  cement  into  the  construction  of  a 
culvert  did  not  report  it  to  the  civil  authorities.  A 
heavy  rain  washed  the  dirt  off  the  clay  tiling  in  a 
gulley  near  a  farmer's  house  and  he  saw  it  every 
day,  but  he  did  not  inform  the  road  commissioner 
about  it  until  long  after  the  weight  of  passing  traffic- 
had  so  damaged  the  tiling  that  it  was  a  total  loss  to 
the  count}'.  A  teacher  and  three  country  school 
trustees  have  permitted  the  school's  library  books  to 
be  carried  away  and  the  school  furniture  to  be  dam- 
aged by  campers  and  interlopers  because  they  have 
neglected  keeping  the  schoolhouse  doors  locked.  A 
county  home  for  the  indigent  is  wreaking  with  filth 
and  vermin,  but  no  one  seeks  to  have  it  remedied. 
Prisoners  are  stricken  with  tuberculosis  in  a  dark  un- 
ventilated  jail  and  are  underfed  by  the  one  who  has 
contracted  with  the  county  to  board  them,  but  citizen 
Jones,  a  good  man,  who  knows  about  it,  sits  by  and 
says  nothing.  And  so  the  instances  of  civic  care- 
lessness and  negligence  might  be  extended  in- 
definitely. 

Why  all  this  civic  unconcern?  How  may  it  be 
corrected.  I  think  that  the  fault  is  partly  that  of  the 
public  schools  and  must  be  corrected  in  part 
through      them.       The      twentieth-century     public 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL    IOO, 

schools,  both  rural  and  urban,  must  concern  them- 
selves more  deeply  with  the  production  of  a  vigilant, 
useful  citizenry.  Our  nation  is  passing  through 
one  of  the  most  critical  periods  in  its  history.  If 
it  is  made  safe  for  democracy,  the  public  school  must 
do  it. 

We  have  those  rankling  in  our  midst  who  regard 
law  and  government  as  their  worst  enemy.  Many 
low-bred  foreigners  have  poured  into  our  land. 
The  only  government  that  they  knew  was  a  govern- 
ment of  repression.  They  brought  that  conception 
with  them  and  have  retained  it.  To  them,  freedom 
means  freedom  from  restraint.  They  are  incapable 
of  regarding  government  as  a  helpful,  uplifting 
force.  Worse  still,  among  many  of  the  native-born 
in  our  Southland  there  still  lives  the  obsolete  doctrine 
that  the  government  that  governs  least  governs  best. 
The  old  idea  of  government  as  a  restricting  force 
must  be  overcome.  The  sheriff  and  the  policeman 
are  not  my  enemies,  but  my  friends  and  protectors. 
The  jail  is  not  a  public  monument  to  excite  fear  in 
me,  but  a  place  to  retain  the  mad  man  who  would 
do  me  violence  on  the  street  and  the  criminal  who 
wantonly  breaks  the  laws  made  for  my  protection. 
Our  people  must  be  given  a  different  conception  of 
the  significance  of  government  to  them. 


IIO    THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

3.  Good  Citizens  Must  Be  Thrifty  Citizens — 
A  teacher  sent  a  pair  of  his  cast-off  shoes  to  the 
repair  shop  for  new  soles  and  new  heels.  His 
ill-shaped  hat  went  to  the  hatter  the  same  day  for 
re-blocking  and  a  new  band.  They  were  returned 
almost  as  good  as  new.  He  wore  them  to  school 
and  made  them  the  subject  of  his  semi-weekly  thrift 
talk.  In  part,  he  said :  "The  world's  stock  of  man- 
ufactured goods  was  badly  depleted  during  the  war. 
There  are  possibly  fewer  pairs  of  men's  shoes  in  the 
world  to-day  than  ever  before  in  my  lifetime.  The 
same  thing  is  likely  true  of  men's  hats,  civilian 
suits,  and  many  of  the  other  standard  necessities  of 
life.  Scarcity  has  made  them  all  high-priced.  This 
rehabilitated  hat  and  pair  of  shoes  saved  me  the 
expenditure  of  nearly  twenty  dollars.  But  that  is 
not  the  biggest  thing.  Now  it  is  not  necessary  for 
me  to  go  draw  out  one  new  hat  and  one  new  pair  of 
shoes  from  the  world's  supply.  I  have  left  them  on 
the  shelves  at  the  hat  store  and  the  shoe  store  for 
other  people.  In  reality,  I  have  added  one  hat  and 
one  pair  of  shoes  to  the  world's  supply  of  hats  and 
shoes.  If  five  million  men  would  do  that  to-mor- 
row, there  would  be  five  million  more  wearable  hats 
and  pairs  of  shoes  in  the  world.  That  would  tend 
to  bring  down  the  prices  of  hats  and  shoes.     The 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL    III 

more  there  is  of  a  commodity,  the  lower  its  price. 
If  we  would  fight  the  high  cost  of  living  effec- 
tively and  put  prices  on  the  downward  trend,  we 
must  do  it  by  producing  and  saving.  This  is  no 
time  for  idleness  and  wastefulness.  The  world  is 
hungry  and  half  clad.  There  is  work  for  all  hands 
to  do." 

His  pupils  saw  the  point.  It  was  no  trouble  to 
organize  a  thrift  society.  They  went  in  for  economy 
and  saving.  Most  of  them  have  since  opened  small 
bank-accounts.  Some  of  them  have  pigs,  calves 
and  small  flocks  of  poultry  to  call  their  own. 
Others  sell  papers,  mow  lawns  and  do  messenger 
service  after  school  that  they  may  add  to  their  sav- 
ings accounts.  They  are  all  making  a  great  fight 
on  extravagance  and  wastefulness. 

It  is  hard  for  the  penniless  man  to  be  a  valuable  cit- 
izen. It  is  almost  as  difficult  for  the  prodigal  child 
of  wealth.  Mendicancy  and  lavish  opulence  are  con- 
trary to  the  spirit  of  democracy.  The  almstaker  and 
the  spendthrift  have  no  place  in  our  social  order. 
sBoth  should  be  taught  the  lessons  of  frugality  and 
industry.  The  American's  mania  for  spending 
money  is  a  dangerous  thing.  It  is  a  disease  afflict- 
ing tramp  and  millionaire  alike.  There  is  serious 
need  for  practical  instruction  in  thrift  and  economy. 


112    THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

THOUGHT  QUESTIONS 
i.  Is  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  an  inter- 
esting subject  of  study  for  the  average  pupil  below 
college  rank  ?  To  which  will  the  average  pupil  respond 
with  the  greater  interest :  a  study  of  governmental 
structure  or  a  study  of  what  the  government  is  actually 
accomplishing  for  his  benefit?  Make  a  list  of  fifty 
helpful  things  your  government  is  doing  for  you 
to-day.  If  your  pupils  and  patrons  had  an  adequate 
conception  of  what  the  government  is  doing  for  them, 
would  it  make  better  citizens  of  them?  Would  it 
cause  them  to  take  a  more  active  interest  in  having 
capable  persons  put  into  office  ?  Which  candidates  did 
you  vote  for  in  the  last  election,  those  who  were  your 
close  personal  friends  or  those  best  qualified  to  hold 
the  offices  they  sought? 

2.  Is  it  possible  for  a  man  to  be  a  good  man  and  a 
poor  citizen  ?  Do  you  know  any  persons  who  have 
evaded  the  payment  of  their  taxes  by  hiding  away 
certain  portions  of  their  wealth  from  the  tax  assessor? 
At  heart,  are  they  patriots  or  slackers  ?  Give  instances 
of  individuals  guilty  of  civic  carelessness.  Are  there 
any  marks  of  civic  neglect  about  your  school  premises 
or  in  the  interior  of  your  school  building?  Do  your 
pupils  regard  government  as  a  restraining  agency  or 
as  a  helpful,  uplifting  force?  Do  you  have  any  pupils 
whose  parents  are  foreign-born  and  un-American 
in  spirit? 

3.  How  will  economy  and  production  tend  to 
restore  the  present  high  prices  to  their  pre-war  levels? 
Is  thriftlessness  compatible  with  good  citizenship? 
Are  you  trying  to  teach  lessons  of  thrift  and  industry 
in  vour  school? 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL    II3 

REFERENCES 

Allen,  Universal  Training  for  Citizenship  and  Pub- 
he  Service,  Macmillan  Company,  New  York  City. 

Bennion,  Citizenship,  World  Book  Company. 
Yonkers-On-Hudson,  N.  Y. 

Curtis,  Play  and  Recreation  for  the  Open  Country, 
Macmillan  Company,  New  York  City. 

Lapp,  Our  American — The  Elements  of  Civics,  The 
Bobbs-Merrill  Co.,  Indianapolis,  Ind. 

Smith,  Our  Neighborhood,  The  John  C.  Winston 
Company,  Chicago,  111. 

Turkington,  Our  Country,  Ginn  and  Company. 
Boston,  Mass. 

U.  S.  Bureau  of  Education,  The  Teaching  of  Com- 
munity Civics,  Bulletin  191 5,  No.  23,  Washington,  D.  C. 

Ziegler  and  Jaquette,  Our  Community,  The  John  C. 
Winston  Company,  Chicago,  111. 


CHAPTER    VIII 
The  Community  Idea  in  Public  Education 

i.     The    Public    School's    New    Perspective 

When  the  data  is  all  in  and  the  last  chapter  in  the 
history  of  American  education  has  been  written,  the 
advent  of  the  community  idea  in  the  first  half  of 
the  twentieth  century  will  mark  the  beginning  of 
one  of  its  greatest  epochs.  The  free  school  of  the 
future  will  recognize  Public  Opportunity  as  the  in- 
separable handmaid  and  companion  of  scholarship. 
It  will  be  as  generous  in  its  opportunities  to  the  in- 
dustrial masses  as  to  those  aspiring  to  college  gradu- 
ation and  professional  careers.  Those  children 
turned  back  into  the  great  army  of  industrial  work- 
ers will  be  given  an  equal  chance  with  those  inter- 
ested in  the  gentler  callings  of  life. 

Most  of  the  free  schools  of  the  past  have  granted 
free  tuition  rather  than  free  and  equal  opportunity 
to  all  in  attendance.  In  traditions  and  habits  they 
have  been  the  unfortunate  victims  of  the  colleges 
and  academies  from  which  most  of  their  ideals  and 
methods  of  instruction  have  descended.  The  first 
of  the  American  colleges  were  organized  and  dedi- 

114 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL    115 

cated  to  learning.  They  stood  for  scholarship  and 
for  the  preparation  of  young  men  for  the  liberal 
professions :  law,  medicine,  politics  and  the  ministry. 
When  the  privileges  of  education  were  more  gener- 
ally extended  and  the  public  free  schools  began  to 
develop,  much  was  taken  into  their  programs  of 
study  from  the  academies  and  colleges.  And  many 
of  the  public  schools  have  never  been  able  to  break 
away  from  those  old  examples.  Notwithstanding 
all  the  recent  efforts  to  the  contrary,  they  continue 
to  educate  just  as  though  all  their  pupils  were  headed 
straight  for  the  colleges  and  the  professions.  The 
university  degree,  the  teacher's  certificate,  and  the 
doctor's  diploma  symbolize  the  kind  of  education 
dealt  in  by  many  public  school-teachers  not  yet  en- 
joying the  broader  vision  that  the  idea  of  community 
service  gives. 

The  community-service  school  has  a  new  educa- 
tional perspective.  In  its  picture  of  life's  oppor- 
tunities domestic  and  industrial  usefulness  are  given 
a  place  of  prominence  and  beauty  by  the  side  of  the 
•distant  goal  of  success  dedicated  to  the  recondite 
professions.  To  the  many  not  inclined  to  scholastic 
thought  or  desirous  of  professional  attainments  it 
will  point  out  the  way  of  usefulness,  contentment 
and  efficiency  in  the  community  where  they  reside, 


Il6    THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

by  teaching  them  better  how  to  live  and  how  to  put 
their  productive  talents  to  profitable  use.  For  the 
few  with  exceptional  abilities  it  will  provide  ade- 
quate opportunities,  encouraging  them  at  all  times 
to  finish  their  educations  and,  when  possible,  return 
from  college  and  cast  their  lots  for  a  life  of  useful- 
ness among  the  home  people. 

A  young  man  almost  ready  to  graduate  from 
college  was  asked  what  he  meant  to  do  after  com- 
pleting the  course.  "I'm  going  home  and  run  for 
office,"  was  his  prompt  reply.  After  his  questioner 
had  rebuked  him  good-naturedly,  he  said :  "Yes, 
but  you  do  not  understand  me.  I  have  seen  a  great 
many  things  the  last  two  or  three  years.  I  have 
not  been  in  any  of  the  professions,  but  I  have  been 
pretty  close  to  some  of  them.  I  have  never  been  to 
the  top  in  anything,  but  I  have  been  to  where  I 
could  see  the  top.  And  don't  you  know,  I  have 
just  about  decided  that  the  biggest  thing  left  in  life 
for  the  college  young  man  of  average  ability  is  to 
go  back  home  and  run  for  the  office  of  good  citizen. 
I  mean  to  go  back  to  my  home  people  and  possibly 
be  elected  to  some  minor  office :  school  trustee,  road 
overseer,  Sunday-school  superintendent,  or  maybe 
foreman  of  the  grand  jury.  In  short,  I  want  to  go 
back  home  and  be  a  leader  and  benefactor  among 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL    11 J 

my  people.  I  want  my  house  and  my  barns  to  be 
models  of  comfort  and  beauty.  I  want  them  to 
be  object  lessons  for  others.  And  I  want  the  best 
live  stock  and  the  best  field  crops  that  can  be  pro- 
duced anywhere,  to  be  found  on  my  place." 

A  generation  of  young  men  like  this  young  fellow 
would  afford  our  nation  a  body  of  educators, 
statesmen  and  social  reformers  much  greater  and 
more  capable  than  it  has  thus  far  been  able  to  pro- 
duce. The  rural  South  needs  one  hundred  thousand 
like  him  to-day.  He  is  at  present  a  practical 
statesman  in  the  affairs  of  his  home  community. 
This  laboratory  practise  in  that  thrifty  little  center 
is  giving  him  an  unerring  insight  into  vet  broader 
fields  of  public  welfare.  He  is  doing  his  post- 
graduate work  in  constructive  philanthropy  among 
the  people  where  he  grew  up.  Indeed,  his  concepts 
of  public  usefulness  were  first  acquired  in  the  vil- 
lage school  at  home  before  he  went  away  to  college. 

This  small  school  with  its  program  of  public 
opportunity  and  community  service  points  with 
pride  to  the  number  of  men  and  women  of  usefulness 
and  good  influence  it  has  been  able  to  develop  and 
retain  at  home  to  help  make  that  community  a  better 
place  for  people  to  live.  When  a  young  man  full 
of  promise  and  endowed  with  good  ability  leaves  the 


Il8    THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

community  not  to  return,  his  going  is  looked  on  as 
a  serious  and  irreparable  loss.  The  principal  of  the 
school  contends  that  there  are  opportunities  at  home 
just  as  attractive  as  those  abroad  and  that  it  is  the 
duty  of  the  school  to  point  the  way  to  them.  And 
when  it  fails  to  do  so,  discontentment  is  sure  to  arise 
in  the  minds  of  the  most  ambitious  young  people. 

This  man  often  deplores  the  gage  of  success  set 
by  so  many  superintendents  who  do  but  little 
more  than  graduate  pupils  by  preparing  them  for 
college  entrance  and  then  congratulating  them- 
selves on  what  they  have  done.  They  keep  long 
rosters  of  their  pupils  who  have  gone  to  the  univer- 
sity and  made  teachers,  lawyers,  doctors  and  civil 
engineers,  but  lose  sight  of  those  valuable  private 
citizens  who  have  been  equally  successful  as 
mechanics,  farmers  and  stockmen  despite  the  lack 
of  encouragement  given  them  by  the  schools  they 
attended.  In  the  new  school,  whose  chief  desire  is 
community  service  and  opportunity  for  all,  the 
teacher  will  not  evaluate  his  success  by  the  number 
of  pupils  sent  into  the  professions  so  much  as  by  the 
number  who  are  playing  a  man's  part  in  the  home 
township.  His  greatest  pride  will  center  around 
those  successful  persons  he  has  inspired  to  find  a 
satisfactory  life-work  at  home,  rather  than  around 
those  he  has  directed  into  other  adventures. 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL    I  IO, 

When  that  day  comes,  the  South  will  not  suffer 
for  want  of  capable  leaders,  nor  will  our  institutions 
of  higher  learning  be  at  a  loss  for  want  of  desirable 
human  material  for  their  student  bodies.  In  fact, 
the  students  from  this  new  type  of  school  will  be 
older  and  far  more  substantial  in  their  purposes  and 
ideals  than  the  immature  young  group  now  inherited 
each  year  from  the  present  system  of  high  schools. 

2.  Redirected  Instruction  in  the  Common  Sub- 
jects.— In  all  subjects  the  instruction  given  will 
be  more  closely  related  to  the  practical  duties  of 
life.  It  will  be  simple,  concrete  and  practical, 
rather  than  abstract,  technical  and  mysterious.  It 
will  touch  life  as  the  average  pupil  knows  it.  Pupils 
will  be  taught  how  to  get  along  in  the  world,  and 
they  will  remain  in  school  longer  for  that  reason. 
There  will  be  a  noticeable  reduction  in  the  number  of 
discouraged  ones  leaving  school  fitted  for  nothing 
in  particular. 

In  arithmetic  trie  problems  of  measurement  and 
business  accounting  will  be  taught  so  as  to  apply  to 
the  problems  of  the  farm.  The  farmer  boy  who 
knows  how  to  calculate  the  whole  cost  of  producing 
a  fat  hog,  a  bale  of  cotton,  or  a  bushel  of  peanuts 
can  hardly  be  found  to-day.  The  farmer  who  can 
tell  you  how  much  he  made  last  year  is  the  very 


120    THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

rarest  exception  indeed.  Housewives  are  equally 
as  ignorant  of  the  principles  of  household  account- 
ing. But  the  new  school  will  have  more  to  do  with 
the  costs  of  menus,  the  expense  of  maintaining  the 
work  animals  on  the  farm,  and  the  profits  paid  by 
the  dairy  cows  and  the  poultry  yard. 

In  physiology  and  hygiene  the  lessons  will  have 
much  to  do  with  food  values,  home  sanitation,  and 
properly  balanced  rations  for  the  family  and  for  the 
farm  animals.  The  proper  housing  and  feeding  of 
calves,  colts,  pigs  and  chickens  will  be  closely  cor- 
related with  the  lessons  on  ventilation  and  dietetics. 
The  screens,  the  kitchen  sink,  the  proper  handling 
of  milk  and  butter,  the  sterilizing  power  of  direct 
sunlight,  and  the  value  of  the  sleeping  porch  will 
not  be  overlooked.  The  eyes  of  the  instructors  will 
be  on  the  homes  and  the  environment  of  the  pupils. 
The  lessons,  demonstrations  and  analogies  will 
cause  many  new  improvements,  making  farm  homes 
more  comfortable  places  in  which  to  live.  Hie  new 
instruction  in  physiology  will  influence  the  living 
habits  of  people,  whereas  the  study  of  human  anat- 
omy and  the  imaginary  conceptions  of  the  forms 
and  functions  of  a  few  bones  and  the  organs  of  the 
body  have  practically  failed  in  the  past. 

History  will  have  less  to  go  with  wars,  battles, 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL    121 

generals  and  presidents,  none  of  which  the  pupils 
have  ever  seen,  and  more  to  do  with  current  events, 
and  the  local  affairs  of  the  school  district,  the 
county  and  the  state.  Language  and  general 
science  will  be  so  correlated  that  each  will  give  an 
additional  interest  to  the  other,  and  both  will  be 
given  new  powers  for  the  improvement  of  the  habits 
of  thought  and  speech  among  the  pupils. 

3.  The  Public  School  Exists  for  People  of  All 
Ages. — Education  in  the  past  has  dealt  almost  ex- 
clusively with  the  individual  and  with  the  scholastic 
group.  Just  there  the  American  elementary  and 
secondary  schools  have  fallen  short.  It  is  a  fal- 
lacious idea  that  one's  education  is  complete  as  soon 
as  his  school-days  are  over.  The  new  school  pro- 
vides for  the  people  of  all  ages.  It  is  a  continuation 
school  for  the  social  and  mental  improvement  of 
pupils,  parents  and  grown  young  people.  It  is 
reaching  those  not  in  school  through  the  farmers' 
club,  lyceum,  community  fair  and  various  other 
educational  agencies. 

The  new  school  is  giving  rriuch  attention  to  the 
art  and  science  of  housekeeping:-  Modern  household 
equipment  has  made  scientific  training  for  house- 
keeping necessary.  The  fireless  cooker,  the  dust- 
less    sweeper,    the    refrigerator,   the   oil    stove,    the 


122    THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

kitchen  sink,  bath  tub  and  septic  tank  require  scien- 
tific intelligence  on  the  part  of  the  housekeeper.  This 
intelligence  dignifies  the  idea  of  home.  Joined 
with  the  right  appreciation  of  the  artistic  and  the 
beautiful,  it  serves  to  make  a  home  a  home  instead 
of  a  mere  place  of  residence.  Better  homes  always 
mean  much  for  community  life  of  a  higher  order. 
Decent  homes  are  essential  to  decent  citizenship. 

4.  The  New  School  Will  Have  a  New  Teacher. 
— Confining  the  work  of  education  to  groups  of 
immature  children  has  been  conducive  to  unpar- 
donable academic  narrowness  on  the  part  of  many 
teachers.  It  has  caused  many  men  and  women  in 
the  school-room  to  deteriorate  into  petty  discipli- 
narians and  dogmatic  text-book  interpreters.  But 
the  advent  of  the  community-service  idea  in  educa- 
tion marks  the  beginning  of  a  new  era  in  educational 
practises.  The  social,  cultural  and  industrial  wants 
of  the  community  are  being  committed  more  and 
more  to  the  guardianship  of  the  school.  This  is 
calling  for  courageous  initiative  and  decisive  leader- 
ship from  the  ranks  of  the  teachers.  It  is  generating 
a  new  type  of  teacher.  This  new  teacher  has  the 
combined  abilities  of  "community  manager,"  "social 
engineer"  and  educator.  Our  normal  schools  and 
universities,  naturally  conservative,  must  wake  up 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL    I23 

and  hear  the  country's  call  for  this  type  of  teacher. 
They  have  turned  out  too  many  academic  weaklings 
in  the  past  who  can  not  measure  up  to  the  tests  and 
practical  requirements  of  this  new  day. 

5.  The  New  School  Will  Have  the  Moral  and 
Financial  Support  of  the  People. — The  complaint 
is  often  made  that  the  public  schools  are  not  prop- 
erly supported.  In  many  instances  this  is  very 
true.  But  it  is  equally  as  true  that  some  of  them 
are  supported  as  well  as  they  deserve  to  be.  Con- 
sidering the  character  of  service  rendered,  it  is 
astounding  that  many  of  our  public  schools  are  sup- 
ported as  well  as  they  are.  We  can  not  expect  the 
support  given  the  school  by  the  home  and  the  com- 
munity to  be  in  a  greater  degree  than  the  service 
rendered  by  the  school  to  them.  When  our  schools 
come  to  concern  themselves  more  with  the  every-day 
affairs  of  the  home  and  the  community,  the  people 
will  rally  more  enthusiastically  to  their  aid  and 
maintenance. 

THOUGHT  QUESTIONS 

1.  Discuss  some  of  the  influences  the  colleges  have 
had  on  the  public  schools.  Wherein  lies  the  error  of 
regarding  the  public  school  as  a  preparatory  school 
for  the  college  ?  Which  pupils  have  received  the  more 
favors    from   the   public    schools,   those   with    college 


124    THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

ambitions  or  those  with  domestic  and  business  inclina- 
tions ?  Does  free  tuition  always  mean  a  free  and  equal 
opportunity  for  all  the  pupils  in  attendance  ?  If  pupils 
were  taught  more  about  how  to  get  along  in  the  world, 
would  they  remain  in  school  longer  for  that  reason? 
Why  do  so  many  public  school  superintendents  seem 
inclined  to  measure  their  success  by  the  number  of 
students  they  have  graduated  and  sent  away  to  college, 
rather  than  by  the  number  they  have  turned  back  into 
the  home  community  to  lead  lives  of  practical  useful- 
ness as  valuable  private  citizens? 

2.  Have  you  acquired  the  habit  and  the  ability  of 
making  your  instruction  in  the  school  subjects  simple, 
concrete  and  practical,  or  do  you  teach  in  terms  that 
are  abstract,  technical  and  foreign  to  the  minds  of 
your  pupils?  Which  do  you  teach,  lessons  or  books? 
Distinguish  between  a  teacher  and  a  text-book 
interpreter. 

3.  Should  the  school  exist  for  children  only,  or  for 
the  people  of  all  ages?  Why  has  scientific  information 
become  so  necessary  for  modern  housekeeping? 
Distinguish  between  a  home  and  a  place  of  residence. 
Should  we  expect  the  support  given  by  the  home  to 
the  school  to  be  in  a  greater  degree  than  the  services 
rendered  by  the  school  to  the  home? 

4.  Show  that  the  successful  teacher  in  the  large 
centralized  rural  school  of  the  twentieth  century  must 
have  the  combined  abilities  of  "community  manager,'" 
"social  engineer"  and  educator. 

5.  Why  will  the  new  school  receive  the  moral  and 
the  financial  support  of  all  the  people? 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL    1 25 

REFERENCES 

Carney,  Country  Life  and  the  Country  School,  Row, 
Peterson  and  Company,  Chicago. 

Betts  and  Hall,  Better  Rural  Schools,  The  Bobbs- 
Merrill  Company,  Indianapolis,  Ind. 

Cubberly,  Rural  Life  and  Education,  Sturgis  and 
Walton  Company,  New  York  City. 

Eggleston  and  Bruere,  The  Work  of  the  Rural 
School,  Harper  and  Brothers,  New  York  City. 

Fiske,  The  Challenge  of  the  Country,  Association 
Press,  New  York  City. 

Foght,  The  American  Rural  School,  The  Macmillan 
Company,  New  York  City. 

Kern,  Among  Country  Schools,  Ginn  and  Company. 
New  York  City. 


CHAPTER  IX 

Twentieth-Century  Salaries  For  Twentieth- 
Century  Teachers  in  Rural  and  Village 

Communities 

Two  years  ago  the  best  paid  principal  of  a  seven- 
teacher  school  in  Texas  received  a  salary  of  two 
thousand  dollars,  a  comfortable  home,  and  the  use 
of  thirty  acres  of  good  farming  land.  This  was 
easily  the  equivalent  of  a  three  thousand  dollar 
salary.  So  far  as  I  know,  the  best  paid  principal 
of  a  four-teacher  school  in  Texas  this  year  receives 
a  salary  of  eighteen  hundred  dollars,  a  neat  five- 
room  bungalow  to  live  in,  and  the  use  of  ten  acres 
of  choice  farming  land.  This  is  easily  the  equiva- 
lent of  a  salary  of  twenty-two  hundred  and  fifty 
dollars. 

I  have  conducted  some  research  into  the  question 
of  rural  and  village  teachers'  salaries  in  Texas  the 
last  five  years.  Whenever  I  have  learned  of  a 
teacher's  receiving  a  phenomenal  salary,  I  have 
sought  the  reasons  for  it.  i  have  analyzed  local 
conditions  and  school  functions  as  carefully  and 
scientifically  as  I  could.     Some  cases  I  have  found 

126 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL    12J 

due  to  highly  favorable  local  conditions.  Those,  I 
have  not  carried  into  my  series  of  critical  observa- 
tions. For  example,  the  Pharr-San-Juan  District 
in  the  lower  Rio  Grande  Valley  pays  the  principal 
three  thousand  six  hundred  dollars  per  year. 
That  is  in  part  the  outcome  of  special  advantages 
enjoyed  by  that  particular  locality  on  the  irrigation 
canals  with  as  rich  agricultural  land  as  there  is  in 
the  world  and  a  very  highly  aggressive  citizenship. 
But  where  I  have  found  a  case  situated  in  an  en- 
vironment typical  of  any  very  considerable  portion 
of  the  state,  I  have  given  it  a  careful  analysis. 

i.  A  Twentieth- Century  Village  Teacher. — The 
seven-teacher  school  previously  mentioned  as  paying 
a  salary  of  two  thousand  dollars  to  its  principal  is 
located  in  a  sawmill  village  in  East  Texas.  In  the 
pines  of  Texas  and  Louisiana  there  are  scores  of 
villages  just  like  it.  And,  as  a  class,  I  have  found 
no  men  more  loyal  in  the  support  of  public  educa- 
tion than  the  sawmill  owners.  They  seldom  oppose 
a  school  tax  or  decline  to  supply  the  school  with  all 
the  building  material  necessary  at  actual  cost  of 
production. 

When  I  went  to  this  school  to  make  a  critical 
appraisal  of  its  interests  and  activities,  here  are 
some  of  the  things  I  found.     The  principal  had  been 


128    THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

there  four  years.  He  began  at  a  salary  of  eleven 
hundred  and  fifty  dollars.  Later  he  received  fifteen 
hundred  dollars.  At  the  end  of  the  third  year  he 
was  tendered  an  attractive  position  elsewhere  at 
eighteen  hundred  dollars.  But  the  home  people 
were  unwilling  to  part  with  him  and  raised  his 
salary  to  two  thousand  dollars. 

One  of  the  first  things  to  attract  my  attention  at 
this  school  was  the  miniature  silo.  It  was  filled 
with  good  sweet  ensilage  made  from  Indian  corn 
grown  on  the  school  farm.  The  boys  produced  the 
corn,  harvested  it  and  converted  it  into  silage. 
They  had  kept  careful  accounts  of  the  cost  of  pro- 
duction and  knew  the  feeding  value  of  the  finished 
product. 

The  school  farm  contained  three  acres  of  land. 
Part  of  this  land  was  very  rolling  and  had  been 
beautifully  terraced.  The  beauty  of  the  terraces 
consisted  in  their  proper  location  and  scientific  con- 
struction. They  were  given  a  drop  of  one  inch  to 
every  twenty  feet  of  distance.  The  members  of  the 
agriculture  class  were  as  familiar  with  the  uses  of 
the  terracing  level  as  they  were  with  the  rules  of 
compound  numbers  in  arithmetic.  Several  of  the 
older  boys  had  laid  off  the  terraces  on  their  fathers' 
farms  with  the  school  terracing  level. 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL    120, 

The  Babcock  milk  tester  was  also  seeing  service. 
The  milk  of  many  of  the  cows  in  the  community 
had  been  tested.  It  had  been  discovered  that  some 
of  them  gave  milk  of  a  very  poor  quality.  The 
unprofitable  ones  were  being  sold  and  replaced  by 
better  ones.  Other  articles  of  equipment  in  the  small 
agricultural  and  animal  husbandry  laboratory  were 
microscopes,  soil  thermometers,  fertilizers,  spraying 
mixtures,  seed  testers,  test-tubes,  beakers,  balances, 
etc.  This  school  was  intelligently  adapting  its 
program  of  instruction  to  the  industrial  needs  of 
that  community  in  a  state  of  transition  from  the 
virgin  pines  to  applied  agriculture. 

A  short  distance  from  the  main  building  were 
two  small  rooms  equipped  with  ranges,  tables  and 
other  appliances  for  teaching  the  girls  home 
economics.  There  they  received  instruction  in 
home  sanitation,  home  beautification,  and  household 
accounting.  This  work  gave  an  effective  union  of 
theory  and  practise  in  the  domestic  arts.  The  girls 
were  not  only  taught  the  value  of  a  balanced  ration 
and  the  principles  of  menu-making,  but  they  had 
real  practise  in  the  best  methods  of  preparing  and 
serving  food. 

The  school  campus  consisted  of  five  acres  of  land 
well  supplied  with  playground  apparatus.     Its  chief 


I3O    THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

attractions  were  swings,  giant  strides,  see-saws,  a 
race  course,  and  courts  for  tennis,  basketball  and 
baseball.  The  playground,  with  all  its  modern 
accommodations,  constituted  part  of  the  working 
equipment  of  this  school  just  as  much  as  the 
books  the  children  studied  and  the  seats  they  occu- 
pied. Its  purpose  was  to  connect  many  of  the 
lessons  of  the  class-room  with  the  actual  duties  and 
relationships  of  life  in  definite  practise. 

In  addition  to  the  industrial  instruction  and  the 
playground  activities  were  the  agencies  for  social 
and  cultural  recreation.  Story-telling,  music, 
dramatics  and  social-center  meetings  produced  an 
exuberant  good  fellowship  in  the  community  as  all- 
embracing  as  the  very  atmosphere  itself.  The  male 
quartette,  choral  club,  Victrola,  dramatic  entertain- 
ments, piano  concerts,  and  story-tellers'  evenings 
were  the  sources  of  profitable,  vivacious  pastime 
for  the  entire  population.  Socially,  the  biggest 
thing  in  the  village  was  the  school  and  its  allied 
activities. 

This  school  had  a  real  twentieth-century  vision  of 
the  duties  and  functions  of  a  public  school  in  a  vil- 
lage like  that.  Its  primary  purpose  was  to  make 
valuable  citizens  and  community  builders  of  those 
in    attendance.      Its    chief    concern    was    with    the 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL    I3I 

ninety  per  cent,  or  so  of  its  pupils  who  will  never 
go  to  college  or  enter  any  of  the  professions,  but 
will  remain,  for  the  most  part,  among  the  home- 
builders  and  industrial  producers  of  the  next 
generation. 

2.  A  Twentieth-Century  Country  Teacher. — 
Two  years  ago  I  visited  the  country  school  taught 
by  the  man  who  was  the  best  paid  country  teacher 
in  Texas  in  19 19.  During  the  two  days  I  was 
there,  here  are  some  of  the  things  I  learned.  A 
consolidation  of  three  small  schools  had  been  made 
three  years  prior  to  my  visit.  There  were  one 
hundred  and  eight  white  children  in  the  enlarged 
district  with  four  teachers  employed  to  instruct 
them.  The  country  was  sparsely  settled,  and  some 
of  the  pupils  lived  as  far  as  seven  miles  from  school. 
Most  of  them  came  to  school  on  horseback,  in  bug- 
gies and  in  automobiles.  One  Ford  car  was 
operated  at  public  expense  for  the  transporting  of 
pupils  to  and  from  school. 

At  the  time  of  my  visit,  the  school  had  ten  acres 
of  land,  six  buildings  and  a  windmill.  The  build- 
ings were  the  principal's  home,  a  home  for  the 
three  women 'teachers,  the  tool-house,  a  barn  for 
the  horses  the  children  drove  and  rode  to  school, 
the  main  school  building  and  the  auditorium.      The 


132    THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

main  building  is  of  gray  brick.  It  contains  two 
halls  and  five  class-rooms.  The  auditorium  is  a 
frame  building  with  a  capacity  of  five  hundred 
people. 

One  and  one-half  acres  of  the  land  were  under 
irrigation,  and  one  and  one-fourth  acres  were 
devoted  to  dry-farming  projects.  The  water  for 
irrigation  was  pumped  into  the  storage  tank  by  the 
windmill.  The  land  under  irrigation  was  planted 
to  onions  and  Irish  potatoes.  Onions  are  one  of 
the  principal  money  crops  of  Southwest  Texas, 
where  this  school  is  located.  It  was  not  known  that 
Irish  potatoes  could  be  successfully  grown  in  that 
frontier  locality  until  demonstrated  by  the  school. 
I  was  there  in  March,  19 17.  The  onions  and 
potatoes  were  to  be  harvested  in  May  and  the  land 
planted  to  tepary  beans,  peanuts  and  broomcorn. 
This  second  crop  was  to  be  harvested  and  followed 
with  fall  garden  stuff  in  October.  The  object  was 
to  keep  the  land  producing  a  crop  of  some  sort 
throughout  the  entire  year. 

The  individual  plats  of  onions  were  forty  by 
sixty  feet  in  size.  There  were  sixteen  of  them. 
Some  of  the  best  ones  made  as  much  as  forty  dol- 
lars' worth  of  onions.  One-half  of  the  net  proceeds 
went  to  the  boys  who  cultivated  them  and  the  other 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL    I33 

half  to  the  school.  This  not  only  gave  the  boys 
practise  in  the  methods  of  cultivation  and  the  uses 
of  fertilizers,  but  gave  them  some  very  valuable 
lessons  in  farm  bookkeeping,  knowledge  greatly 
needed  by  most  farmers  in  the  South. 

Among  these  individual  plats  of  onions  and 
potatoes  you  could  see  good  farming  and  poor  farm- 
ing very  sharply  contrasted.  Some  of  them  were 
the  evident  products  of  slovenliness  and  lack  of 
industry.  You  did  not  have  to  travel  all  over  the 
entire  community  to  gather  examples  of  successful 
and  unsuccessful  farming.  Every  degree  of  suc- 
cess and  failure,  from  the  best  to  the  worst,  wras 
concentrated  on  the  school  farm.  The  causes  for 
each  were  well-known.  The  object  lesson  was  a 
most  forceful  one.  It  meant  as  much  to  the  com- 
munity at  large  as  it  did  to  the  school.  In  fact, 
its  purpose  was  to  benefit  the  community. 

During  the  previous  four  years  this  small  school 
farm  had  given  a  powerful  impetus  to  home  gar- 
dening among  the  patrons  of  the  school.  It  had 
demonstrated  what  could  be  done  at  home  with  a 
windmill  and  a  small  plat  of  ground  down  in  that 
semi-arid  portion  of  the  state  where  windmills  are 
a  universal  farm  and  ranch  appliance.  The  plan 
then  was  to  set  aside  a  small  area  of  the  school 


134    THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

land  for  berries  and  vegetables  and  make  it  a  prac- 
tical working  model  for  an  all-the-year-round  home 
garden. 

The  nnirrigated  plat  of  land  was  devoted  to  dry- 
farming  projects.  Fall  breaking,  dust  mulching 
and  conservation  of  moisture  were  being  practised. 

Some  of  the  industrial  projects  at  home  were  as 
interesting  and  as  valuable  as  the  school  projects. 
Eight  boys  had  produced  two  thousand  pounds  of 
pork  at  a  cost  of  three  and  one-half  cents  per  pound. 
Four  champion  "baby"  beeves  had  been  grown  by 
the  schoolboys. 

This  school  also  recognized  that  industrial  educa- 
tion was  as  necessary  for  its  girls  as  for  its  boys. 
A  more  competent  generation  of  farmers  would  be 
unfortunate  without  a  more  competent  generation 
of  farmers'  wives  to  assist  them.  Consequently,  a 
school  laboratory  for  training  for  efficiency  in  the 
home  had  been  equipped  and  put  into  use.  It  con- 
tained three  sewing-machines,  two  oil  stoves,  and 
numerous  minor  laboratory  accessories.  Here  it 
was  that  the  girls  made  their  graduating  dresses,  and 
were  taught  many  valuable  lessons  in  household 
accounting,  food  preparation  and  home  sanitation. 
They  were  given  credit  for  making  their  graduating 
dresses   and   the   costumes    for   the   cantata   at   the 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL    1 35 

close  of  school  the  same  as  for  the  rest  of  their 
school  work.  Indeed,  they  were  graded  on  their 
sewing  and  on  the  fitting  of  garments  just  as  crit- 
ically as  they  were  graded  on  their  lessons  in  history 
and  in  English  composition. 

While  the  school  was  actively  identifying  itself 
with  the  industrial  needs  of  its  patrons,  it  had  made 
itself  equally  as  responsive  to  their  social  and 
recreational  needs.  The  auditorium  was  the  com- 
munity's playhouse.  The  school,  being  in  the  open 
country  and  fifteen  miles  from  the  railroad,  was 
obligated  all  the  more  bindingly  to  provide  a  modi- 
cum of  social  recreation  for  these  young  people  and 
their  parents.  The  male  quartette,  Victrola  con- 
certs, plays,  drills,  stories  and  informal  social 
gatherings  contributed  to  this  end.  Through  the 
Victrola  the  pupils  had  heard  the  voices  of  Presi- 
dent Wilson  and  Premier  Lloyd  George.  They 
had  heard  most  of  the  great  artists  of  the  world  sing 
and  play.  Gluck,  McCormick  and  Kreisler  were 
among  their  favorites. 

Why  this  remarkable  school  in  that  particular 
section  of  the  thorns  and  cacti  of  Southwest  Texas  ? 
It  was  due  to  no  large  concentration  of  wealth  or 
other  specially  favored  conditions.  In  topog- 
raphy,    population    and     industry    the    locality     is 


I36    THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

typical  of  most  of  the  country  in  that  vast  frontier 
empire  extending  from  San  Antonio  to  Del  Rio, 
Brownsville  and  Corpus  Christi.  The  success  of 
this  school  is  attributable  in  the  main  to  the  vision 
and  energies  of  one  man — the  principal  of  the 
school. 

This  man  taught  for  several  years  in  the  small- 
town schools  of  the  state.  But  he  saw  a  more 
desirable  opportunity  in  the  country.  He  went  to 
the  country  to  be  an  active  rural-life  leader  and 
community-builder.  He  has  succeeded  in  what  he 
set  out  to  do. 

Our  Southland  could  use  twenty  thousand 
teachers  like  this  man.  But  leaders  with  the  clear 
vision  of  rural  needs  and  rural  possibilities,  and 
with  the  engaging  personality  that  compels  people 
to  follow,  are  seldom  found  among  the  country 
teachers  of  to-day.  And  most  distressing  of  all,  we 
can  not  hope  for  any  considerable  number  of  them 
in  the  near  future  to  come  from  our  institutions  of 
higher  learning,  both  church  and  state,  now  engaged 
in  the  business  of  training  teachers.  Before  these 
institutions  can  impart  the  vision  of  present-day 
rural  possibilities  to  others,  they  themselves  must 
first  get  the  vision  and  grant  it  a  fair  chance  to 
function  in  their  curricula. 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL    I37 

3.  The  Threefold  Function  of  Rural  and  Village 
Schools  in  the  Twentieth  Century. — If  I  correctly 
interpret  the  rural  and  village  schools  that  are  satis- 
fying the  public  best  and  receiving  the  most  liberal 
and  loyal  support  from  the  public  in  return,  their 
activities  center  around  three  definite  groups  of 
interests :  viz.,  academic  interests,  industrial  inter- 
ests, and  social  and  recreational  interests.  Whereas 
the  school  of  yesterday  was  primarily  academic  in 
its  aim  and  its  course  of  study,  the  new  school  is  all 
that  and  much  more.  It  ministers  to  all  the  vital 
needs  of  the  community.  The  new  teacher  is  the  so- 
cial and  industrial  light  as  well  as  the  intellectual 
light  among  the  people  he  serves.  He  is  far  bigger 
and  broader  than  the  wizened  pedagogue  saturated 
with  the  usual  stock  of  academic  facts  and  ideals  ac- 
quired at  college. 

For  men  and  women  with  the  education  and 
aptitude  for  discovering  and  meeting  cultural, 
recreational  and  industrial  needs  in  the  country, 
there  is  a  most  enviable  opportunity  in  the  South 
to-day.  It  is  an  opportunity  for  the  person  who 
knows  "how  to  work  in  the  open  where  the  people 
are"  and  elucidate  truth  in  terms  familiar  to  them. 
It  is  an  extremely  vital  field  of  educational  endeavor 
for  the  person  with  an  acute  social  sense  and  the 


I38    THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

faculty  of  doing  things  with  zeal  and  with 
enthusiasm. 

Born  of  necessity,  the  demands  of  the  twentieth 
century  will  raise  up  a  new  type  of  teacher.  This 
new  teacher  will  establish  a  more  vital  contact 
between  intellectual  achievement  and  industrial  and 
social  training.  He  will  refuse  to  "sit  tight"  in  the 
class-room  while  life,  industry  and  action  beckon 
from  the  outside.  He  will  align  his  services  more 
closely  with  the  lives  and  needs  of  his  people,  and 
they  will  respect  him  and  compensate  him  liberally 
for  it. 

4.  The  Fundamental  Reason  for  Starvation 
Salaries  for  Country  Teachers — A  county  superin- 
tendent took  me  to  what  he  said  was  the  "most 
forward-looking  four-teacher  school"  in  his  county. 
After  a  lad  of  fifteen  had  finished  telling  me  about 
milk  testing,  egg  testing,  infertile  eggs,  farm  ter- 
racing" and  how  to  calculate  the  capacity  of  a  silo, 
he  told  me  about  some  of  the  things  back  at  home. 
He  said:  "Why,  don't  you  know,  Dad  nearly  had 
fits  when  they  voted  the  school  tax  here  four  years 
ago.  He  quit  his  work  to  fight  the  election  for  a 
whole  week,  and  the  ridin'  he  gave  his  ole  mule 
hurt  it  worse  'an  any  week's  work  it  got  all  sum- 
mer. Hut  Dad's  for  the  school  now.  He's  out 
with  another  fellow  to-day  tryin'  to  raise  money  so 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL    I39 

school  can  go  on  another  month  longer.     He  thinks 
the  new  school  is  worth  the  price." 

And  that  school  was  worth  the  price.  All  the 
people  in  the  community  knew  it.  I  am  convinced 
that  our  country  people  as  a  whole  are  not  averse 
to  remunerating  teachers  liberally  when  they  see 
they  are  worth  the  pay.  The  principals  and  the 
teachers  of  the  two  schools  I  have  mentioned  were 
paid  handsome  salaries  because  the  people  believed 
in  the  sort  of  education  they  stood  for.  I  could 
give  other  examples  of  the  same  kind.  But  the 
average  rural  school  of  to-day  with  its  trite  academic 
lore  is  far  less  appealing  to  the  average  layman. 
He  regards  it  with  indifference.  He  supports  it 
reluctantly.  In  the  light  of  these  facts,  I  have  been 
driven  to  this  discomforting  conclusion :  The  con- 
suming public  is  now  paying  just  about  as  much  as 
it  ever  will  pay  for  the  sort  of  product  the  average 
public  school  is  putting  on  the  market.  Salaries 
will  be  advanced  when  the  product  is  improved. 
Until  then,  I  see  no  hope  for  any  very  substantial 
raise.  Raising  tax  rates  and  property  valuations  is 
merely  scratching  on  the  surface  of  the  issue.  That 
will  help  some,  but  it  will  not  correct  the  funda- 
mental evil.  The  schools  themselves  must  have  a 
rebirth.  The  people  will  foot  the  bills  when  they 
see  that  the  returns  justify  the  outlay. 


I40    THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

I  left  the  public  school  when  I  was  fourteen  years 
old.  I  could  not  see  that  what  went  on  there  was 
worth  my  time.  I  am  still  not  quite  sure  but  that 
I  was  right  about  it.  If  1  had  it  to  do  over,  I  sus- 
pect that  I  should  do  the  same  thing  again.  Every 
year  thousands  of  boys  do  just  as  I  did.  One  of  the 
most  distressing  things  about  our  country  schools 
is  that  they  are  filled  with  little  boys  and  little  girls. 
The  big  boys  and  big  girls  have  deserted  them. 
Their  lack  of  interest  is  contagious.  It  spreads  to 
parents  and  patrons.  It  generates  half-hearted 
school  support.  But  the  redirected  school  is  retain- 
ing a  larger  percentage  of  older  pupils.  It  is  doing 
it  by  teaching  more  of  those  things  and  championing 
more  of  those  interests  and  activities  that  have  a 
direct  bearing  on  life. 

The  public  school  said  to  me:  "Take  this.  You 
need  it.  It  will  be  good  for  you."  J  was  not  con- 
sulted. Neither  were  my  parents  nor  our  neighbors. 
So  I  conjugated  verbs,  memorized  long  lists  of 
dates,  learned  the  names  of  most  of  the  bones  in  the 
human  skeleton,  taxed  my  young  mind  with  a  great 
deal  of  other  semi-useless  information,  and  supposed 
that  1  was  being  educated.  But  in  time  I  grew  skep- 
tical about  it.  The  relationship  between  all  these 
things  and  the  road  to  success  and  a  life  of  useful- 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL    I4I 

ness  was  too  vague  and  nebulous  for  my  youthful 
acceptance.  One  fine  morning  I  revolted  and  did 
not  go  to  school.  I  now  recall  that  most  of  my  con- 
temporaries in  school  in  that  unpretentious  country 
community  did  just  about  as  I  did.  And  the  trag- 
edy of  it  is  that  their  interests  in  education  seem  to 
have  been  permanently  dampened.  Only  one  of  the 
entire  number  is  an  active  school  worker  to-day. 
This  one  is  cashier  in  the  bank  and  president  of 
the  school  board  in  a  village  of  one  thousand  pop- 
ulation. I  spent  a  night  in  his  home  not  long  ago. 
He  said  to  me :  "All  the  teachers  in  our  school  are 
either  normal-school  graduates  or  college  graduates, 
but  they  are  missing  the  mark  of  our  needs.  Most 
of  the  instruction  they  give  my  children  is  formal 
as  can  be,  and,  I  fear,  not  worth  very  much  after 
all.  I  think  a  great  deal  of  it  is  just  about  as  waste- 
ful of  their  time  as  the  studies  of  Greek  and  higher 
mathematics  were  to  me  the  three  years  I  was  in 
college."  Why  the  bad  taste  in  this  intelligent 
man's  mouth  ?  Will  he  vote  for  a  liberal  increase 
in  the  salaries  of  those  teachers  next  year? 

The  purchasing  public  likes  up-to-date  goods. 
It  pays  liberally  for  attractive  articles  that  can  be 
used  to  practical  advantage.  But  the  finished 
products  of  our  normal  schools  are  very  poor  sellers. 


142    THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

Surely  they  are  not  meeting  the  tastes  and  cheerful 
approval  of  the  public,  else  they  would  bring  better 
prices.  To  say  the  least,  there  is  an  under-produc- 
tion of  men  like  the  two  well-paid  principals  I  have 
mentioned.  The  dies  and  lasts  of  our  normal 
schools  and  university  departments  of  education  are 
turning  out  very  few  of  their  kind.  These  archaic 
institutions  are  in  dire  need  of  new  machinery  and 
modern  equipment  for  that  purpose.  They  would 
do  well  to  make  room  for  it. 

Tracing  the  causes  of  the  small  salaries  for 
teachers  to  their  ultimate  sources,  I  am  persuaded 
that  no  small  portion  of  them  reside  in  the  very 
conservative  practises  of  our  institutions  of  higher 
learning  engaged  in  the  business  of  training  teachers. 
Before  our  rural  and  village  schools  can  be  sub- 
stantially reformed  and  given  a  generation  of 
teachers  who  have  seen  the  new  light,  a  reform 
must  first  come  in  the  conservative  lives  of  our 
institutions  higher  up. 

5.     An    Overlooked    Opportunity One   of   the 

teacher's  best  opportunities  for  service  and  financial 
remuneration  in  the  entire  public  school  system  is 
in  our  better  rural  and  village  agricultural  com- 
munities. It  is  an  overlooked  opportunity  that  has 
been  seen  by  only  a  few  men  and  women  of  fore- 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL    I43 

sight  and  educational  vision  far  in  advance  of  the 
accepted  school-room  practises  of  our  day.  For 
the  teacher  who  is  fully  as  big  as  the  job,  it  is 
an  opportunity  far  more  desirable  in  many  ways 
than  the  average  high-school  position  in  town,  so 
eagerly  sought  by  many  teachers.  I  have  had  this 
statement  most  disparagingly  challenged  by  a  few- 
prominent  educators  on  more  than  one  occasion,  but 
their  challenge  does  not  lessen  its  validity.  The 
teacher's  opportunity  in  the  best  rural  and  village 
districts  is  one  to  which  many  of  our  educators, 
and  some  very  prominent  ones,  too,  are  deaf,  dumb 
and  blind. 

Lingleville,  Texas,  is  an  average  country  village 
with  two  hundred  people  and  a  four-teacher  school. 
I  believe  that  I  could  make  that  place  build  me  a  home 
and  pay  me  a  salary  of  two  thousand  dollars  in 
three  years'  time.  But  I  could  not  do  it  with  the 
sort  of  school  I  taught  when  I  was  principal  there 
twelve  years  ago.  I  received  seventy-five  dollars 
per  month  then.  I  think  that  was  about  all  I  was 
worth.  I  gave  them  a  very  good  school,  as  schools 
ordinarily  go.  It  was  the  only  sort  of  school  I  had 
ever  been  taught  to  teach.  Of  course,  it  was  stereo- 
typed and  conventional.  But  the  reasons  for  its 
flimsy  adaptation  to  the  needs  of  that  place  were 


144    THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

not  my  fault.  They  were  the  faults  of  the  school 
that  taught  me.  That  school  gave  me  my  benighted 
point  of  view  before  I  received  my  diploma  and  cer- 
tificate to  teach. 

Four  years  of  the  usual  academic  regimen  at 
college  seldom  makes  a  rural-life  leader.  It  more 
commonly  leaves  the  graduate  in  conventional  ruts 
from  which  he  never  extricates  himself.  Most  of 
the  small  number  of  rural-life  leaders  we  do  have 
might  well  be  termed  accidental  and  sporadic, 
having  acquired  their  points  of  view  after  they  left 
college.  Knowing  the  subject  usually  included 
in  the  college  curriculum  may  help  one  in  the  tech- 
nical mastery  of  a  profession,  but  it  does  little  to 
stimulate  the  latent  germs  of  leadership,  or  to  set 
advanced  educational  practises  into  motion.  The 
captaincy  of  a  football  team,  the  office  of  Boy  Scout 
Master,  or  the  foremanship  of  a  West-Texas  ranch 
is  worth  far  more  as  a  developer  of  the  initiative, 
the  concepts  and  the  personality  one  must  have  to 
be  a  leader  of  men  and  a  practical  interpreter  of 
life  in  action. 

Rural-life  courses  should  be  among  the  most 
attractive  courses  in  the  normal-school  curriculum. 
With  the  proper  encouragement  they  would  be.  If 
they  were,  young  men  and  young  women  of  talent 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL    I45 

would  be  attracted  to  them  to  make  rural  uplift 
their  life-work.  In  Denmark  the  directing  and 
coordinating  of  rural  activities  has  become  a  pro- 
fession. Rural-life  reformers  are  numbered  among 
the  greatest  men  of  the  nation.  The  same  field  of 
educational  endeavor  is  open  to  the  best  talent  of 
the  South  to-day.  But  it  still  remains  for  our 
southern  educators  to  exploit  in  the  manner  that  the 
Danes  have  done. 

6.  Our  Conservative  Institutions  of  Higher 
Learning. — Prior  to  the  Civil  War  there  were  a 
great  many  academies  in  the  South.  They  were 
attended,  for  the  most  part,  by  the  sons  of  the 
wealthy  plantation  owners.  These  academies  pre- 
pared boys  for  college  entrance,  and  the  colleges 
later  prepared  them  for  politics  and  for  the  pro- 
fessions. With  the  Civil  War  and  the  freeing  of 
the  slaves  came  the  bankruptcy  of  most  of  the  plan- 
tation owners.  Following  their  bankruptcy  came 
the  gradual  closing  of  the  doors  of  most  of  the 
academies  and  the  corresponding  extension  of  free- 
school  privileges  to  all  the  children  of  the  land. 
For  the  want  of  a  better  working  model,  the  develop- 
ing free  schools  copied  many  of  the  educational 
practises  of  the  academies  and  went  on  educating 
just  as  though  every  child  in  attendance  would  stay 


I46    THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

till  graduation  day,  then  go  away  to  college  and 
ultimately  become  a  doctor,  lawyer,  politician,  or 
some  other  professional  person.  Till  this  day, 
our  public  schools  are  not  entirely  free  from  that 
ancient  ideal.     Why? 

This  last  spring  I  attended  five  high-school 
graduating  exercises.  I  heard  the  speeches  of  vale- 
dictorians and  the  papers  read  by  class  prophets.  I 
heard  it  prophesied  that  twenty  years  hence  one 
member  of  a  class  would  be  an  opulent  Wall-Street 
banker;  another  the  president  of  a  prosperous  oil 
company  with  offices  in  some  far-away  city ;  another 
a  world-renowned  surgeon ;  still  another  a  college 
president;  and  yet  others  governors,  congressmen 
and  senators.  But  not  one  time  did  I  hear  it 
prophesied  that  twenty  years  hence  some  boy  or 
some  girl  would  be  the  leading  person  in  all  the 
home  community,  helping  to  better  the  highways  of 
life  traveled  by  the  average  citizen.  The  enlighten- 
ment of  the  great  motley  throng  and  the  welfare  of 
the  busy  industrial  ranks  were  things  unmentioned. 
Affluence  and  honorable  position  were  the  mani- 
fest goals  of  their  youthful  desires.  Their  interest 
in  collective  betterment  was  no  match  for  their 
craving  for  personal  advancement. 

High-school  graduates  usually  reflect  the  ideals 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL    I47 

of  their  instructors.  Their  instructors,  as  a  rule, 
reflect  the  ideals  of  the  institutions  that  educated 
them.  Where  were  the  teachers  of  these  high- 
school  graduates  educated?  Some  of  them  in  my 
own  state  university,  some  in  the  normal  schools 
of  my  state,  and  some  in  the  universities  and  normal 
schools  of  other  states.  Few  of  these  institutions, 
if  any  at  all,  are  as  seriously  concerned  as  they 
should  be  with  the  humbler  callings  and  with  the 
constructive  improvement  of  the  lowly  walks  of  life 
in  our  great  Southland.  They  are  distressingly 
slow  in  overcoming  the  unyielding  precedents  of 
the  scholastic  past.  They  are  slaves  to  many  of 
the  educational  practises  of  yesterday  that  bear 
remotely  on  the  issues  of  to-day. 

Most  of  our  southern  population  resides  in  the 
country.  The  civilization  of  the  South  must  be 
essentially  a  rural  civilization.  The  educators  and 
statesmen  of  this  generation  and  the  next  will  have 
to  battle  mainly  with  rural  issues.  Our  institutions 
of  higher  learning  are  under  obligations  to  give 
them  a  better  training  for  their  duties. 

The  present  indifference  of  our  southern  insti- 
tutions of  higher  learning  toward  rural  issues  is 
tantamount  to  short-sighted  statesmanship  on  their 
part.     They  are  dependent,  in  the  main,  upon  rural 


I48    THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

constituencies  for  their  financial  support.  Most  of 
them  go  before  the  legislatures,  predominantly  rural 
in  their  personnel,  every  two  years  and  bow  down 
like  begging  mendicants  for  revenues  for  the  coming 
biennium.  It  is  absurd  to  expect  the  financial  and 
moral  support  given  to  our  institutions  of  higher 
learning  by  rural  people  and  their  representatives  to 
be  in  a  greater  ratio  than  the  services  rendered  them 
by  these  institutions. 

There  is  abundant  ground  for  the  complaint  that 
rural-life  courses  are  not  getting  their  share  of  atten- 
tion. And  there  is  also  abundant  justification  for 
the  charge  that  most  of  the  very  few  rural-life 
courses  now  being  offered  are  mere  makeshifts  not 
well  adapted  to  present-day  needs  in  the  South. 
For  example,  as  a  student  in  the  University  of 
Texas  eight  years  ago,  I  enrolled  for  a  course  in 
rural  economics.  What  did  I  get?  An  instructor 
not  at  all  familiar  with  rural  conditions  in  Texas, 
a  text  written  by  a  Harvard  professor,  and  some 
parallel  reading  assignments  of  a  very  general 
nature.  I  got  almost  no  direct  light  on  the  existing 
rural  problems  of  my  state.  I  finished  that  course 
in  disappointment,  feeling  that  I  was  very  little 
better  prepared  for  grappling  with  the  question  of 
production,    transportation,    marketing    and    rural 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL    I49 

finance  now  confronting  ns  and  demanding  con- 
structive reform  than  I  was  before  reading  the  as- 
signments and  taking  notes  on  the  lectures  given  in 
that  course.  But  the  failure  of  the  course  was  not  the 
fault  of  the  instructor  who  gave  it.  It  was  due  to 
a  handicap  under  which  he  labored.  He  could  not 
make  the  course  immediately  applicable  to  Texas 
when  the  necessary  data  fresh  from  the  source  in 
Texas  was  not  at  hand.  The  task  of  gathering  it 
and  putting  it  into  usable  form  was  too  great  for 
any  one  person  and  no  institution  in  the  state 
had  ever  made  any  very  serious  attempt  to  do  it. 
Thus  it  is.  Courses  in  rural  economics,  rural 
sociology  and  rural  education  can  never  meet  the 
practical  requirements  of  our  day  until  some  insti- 
tution comes  to  their  aid  and  does  the  necessary 
research  work  and  collecting  of  data  that  new  texts 
may  be  written  and  the  contents  of  the  courses  made 
rich  and  attractive.  Without  an  abundance  of 
concrete  facts,  well  organized  and  bearing  directly 
upon  our  southern  rural  problems,  rural-life  courses 
can  never  be  given  with  the  greatest  practical  worth 
to  those  who  take  them. 

Our  institutions  of  higher  learning  are  slow  to 
make  changes  in  their  curricula  and  equally  as  slow 
to  make  needed  additions  to  them.     Some  of  them 


I50    THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

have  venerable  departments  quite  antagonistic  to 
innovations.  When  a  new  subject  knocks  on  the 
door  and  asks  for  admission  into  the  academic 
household,  some  of  these  older  members  of  the 
family,  hoary  with  age,  promptly  challenge  all  its 
rights  as  though  its  adoption  might  expose  them  to 
the  dangers  of  ultimate  disinheritance.  A  new  sub- 
ject has  to  fight  for  recognition.  It  also  has  to 
show  just  cause  for  fighting.  There  are  many 
reasons  why  rural-life  courses  should  be  entitled  to 
a  more  liberal  recognition.  Every  state  institution 
of  higher  learning  in  the  South  should  have  a  De- 
partment of  Rural  Life.  But  it  is  difficult  for  these 
institutions  to  reform  themselves  from  within. 
They  can  not  overcome  the  momentum  of  their  own 
conservatism.  Aggressive  assistance  is  needed 
from  without.  The  pressure  of  enlightened  public 
sentiment  can  do  much  in  helping  take  this  for- 
midable trench  in  the  warfare  of  academic  reform. 
Insistent  demands  from  public  school-teachers  and 
wide-awake  laymen  will  be  of  inestimable  value  to 
some  of  our  institutions  of  higher  learning  in  the 
laudable  work  of  putting  their  own  houses  in  better 
order. 

7.     The  Ultimate  Remedy — Some  day  our  nor- 
mal schools,  colleges  and  universities  will  hear  the 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL    151 

suppliant  call  of  the  country  community.  They  will 
grasp  its  meaning  with  sympathy  and  understand- 
ing. That  will  be  the  dawn  of  the  morning  of  a 
new  epoch  in  rural  community  welfare.  It  will 
mark  the  beginning  of  the  reorganization  and 
redirecting  of  our  normal  schools. 

The  rehabilitated  normal  school  will  have  a  new 
curriculum.  It  will  be  strong  in  the  social-science 
and  the  life-science  groups  of  study.  Some  of  the 
obsolete  subjects  handed  down  by  tradition  and 
rigidly  required  for  graduation  may  be  omitted 
entirely.  Its  purpose  will  be  to  produce  a  gener- 
ation of  graduates  who  know  how  to  teach  people 
to  keep  healthy,  live  comfortably  and  be  happy. 
This  will  require  more  lessons  on  food,  clothing, 
personal  hygiene,  sanitation,  general  science,  house- 
hold conveniences,  home  beautification,  thrift, 
recreation,  citizenship,  leadership,  rural  sociology, 
community  civics,  group  psychology,  country  life, 
community  cooperation,  business  accounting,  rural 
economics,  farm  crops,  farm  animals  and  other  sub- 
jects bearing  immediately  on  the  welfare  of  the 
individual,  the  home  and  the  community. 

Concurrent  with  the  reform  of  the  normal-school 
curriculum  will  be  a  reform  in  the  normal-school 
faculty.     The  intolerant  stand-patter  and  the  hide- 


152    THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

bound  conservative  will  either  have  to  yield  to  more 
liberal  policies  or  be  permanently  cast  upon  the  pro- 
fessional junk  heap  as  decadent  relics  of  the  days 
gone  by.  And  many  of  the  teachers  of  the  new 
subjects  will  have  to  get  better  points  of  view.  Some 
of  them  do  not  know  enough  about  country  life. 
They  have  heard  a  great  deal  about  it,  they  have 
taken  standard  college  courses  treating  of  it,  and 
they  have  often  gazed  upon  the  rural  landscape  with 
the  deepest  thrills  of  admiration ;  but  they  have 
never  tasted  of  country  life,  deeply,  intimately  and 
understandingly.  A  true  knowledge  of  the  deli- 
ciousness  of  ice-cream  can  not  be  acquired  from 
reading  about  it. 

Then,  again,  there  are  some  instructors  in  the 
rural  social  sciences  who  were  born  and  reared  in 
the  country,  but  who  have  been  away  from  the  coun- 
try so  long  that  they  have  lost  much  of  their  rural 
understanding.  They  do  not  seem  to  realize  that 
it  is  essential  for  them  to  go  back  to  the  country  a 
few  weeks  every  year,  away  out  where  the  real 
American  peasants  are,  in  order  to  keep  from  for- 
getting some  of  the  things  about  which  they  already 
know.  Besides  that,  country  customs  are  changing 
all  the  time.  The  vapors  from  the  country  store,  the 
way  country  people  live,  the  things  they  eat,  what 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL    1 53 

they  wear  and  what  they  talk  about  are  not  just  as 
they  were  yesterday.  The  successful  teacher  of  the 
rural  social  sciences  in  the  future  will  do  much  of 
his  most  profitable  post-graduate  study  out  where 
the  country  people  are,  living  among  them,  eating 
with  them,  talking  with  them,  and  ever  reacquaint- 
ing  himself  with  their  side  of  life. 

When  the  day  of  the  rehabilitated  normal  school 
comes  and  a  generation  of  graduates  that  has  seen 
the  new  light  is  directed  toward  the  beckoning 
opportunities  in  the  better  types  of  our  rural  and 
village  communities  instead  of  toward  the  host  of 
mediocre  positions  in  our  town  and  city  high 
schools,  I  confidently  anticipate  an  automatic,  up- 
ward revision  in  the  schedule  of  teachers'  salaries. 

THOUGHT  QUESTIONS 

1.  There  are  scores  of  sawmill  villages  in  the  South 
like  the  one  mentioned  in  this  chapter,  but  very  few  of 
them  pay  their  teachers  as  well  as  this  one.  Give 
some  of  the  causes  for  this. 

2.  One  man  said  the  reason  for  there  being  so  few 
rural  schools  in  Southwest  Texas  like  the  one  men- 
tioned in  this  chapter  is  that  there  are  so  few 
communities  like  the  one  supporting  that  school. 
Another  one  said,  "No,  there  are  many  communities 
just  as  rich  in  educational  possibilities  as  that  one,  but 
the  reason  for  so  few  schools  like  that  one  is  the  great 


154    THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

dearth  of  teachers  with  the  wisdom  and  the  insight  to 
organize  and  develop  them."     Who  was  right? 

3.  Define  the  threefold  function  of  rural  and  vil- 
lage schools  in  the  twentieth  century. 

4.  Give  some  of  the  causes  for  poor  salaries  for 
teachers.  Account  for  the  indifference  of  the  average 
layman  toward  the  sort  of  education  offered  by  the 
average  public  school.  Will  the  public  pay  better 
salaries  to  teachers  when  the  character  of  the  service 
rendered  by  the  free  schools  to  the  general  public  is 
improved?  Why  do  most  country  boys  drop  out  of 
school  before  they  reach  the  high-school  grades  ?  What 
would  be  the  effect  on  their  attendance  if  the  work  of 
the  schools  were  made  more  practical  and  allied  more 
closely  with  their  interests  and  life  needs  and  with  all 
the  normal  activities  of  the  community? 

5.  Why  have  most  of  our  educators  and  most  of 
our  normal  schools  and  colleges  overlooked  the  oppor- 
tunity for  leadership  and  for  attractive  salaries  for 
capable  teachers  in  the  better  types  of  our  rural  and 
village  communities?  Which  position  would  you 
prefer :  the  superintendency  of  a  village  school  like  the 
one  mentioned  in  this  chapter,  or  the  principalship  of  a 
high  school  in  the  average  town  of  five  thousand 
population  ? 

6.  Why  does  a  teacher  with  no  other  interests  than 
academic  interests  so  seldom  achieve  distinction  as  a 
community  leader?  Why  are  there  so  few  teachers 
and  community  leaders  like  the  principals  of  the  two 
schools  mentioned  in  this  chapter?  Would  we  have 
more  of  them  if  our  normal  schools  were  more  deeply 
concerned  in  the  production  of  their  kind  ?  Why  have 
our  institutions  of  higher  learning  in  the  South  paid 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL    1 55 

so  little  attention  to  the  production  of  rural-life  leaders? 
Show  that  the  civilization  of  the  South  must  be  essen- 
tially a  rural  civilization.  Would  young  men  and 
young  women  of  talent  enroll  for  rural-life  courses 
and  make  rural  education  and  rural  community  leader- 
ship their  life-work  if  such  courses  were  properly 
encouraged  by  our  normal  schools? 

7.  What  is  meant  by  the  statement,  ''The  rehabili- 
tated normal-school  curriculum  will  be  strong  in  the 
social-science  and  the  life-science  groups  of  study"? 
Which  is  of  greater  value  to  the  average  rural  or 
village  teacher,  a  course  in  practical  rural  sociology  or 
a  course  in  plane  trigonometry?  Describe  an  ideal 
instructor  for  the  rural  social  sciences  in  a  normal 
school.  Why  is  it  so  essential  that  he  keep  up  his 
relationships  and  acquaintance  with  rural  people  and 
rural  institutions  by  frequent  visits  to  the  country? 


CHAPTER  X 
School  Taxes  in  Country  Districts 

I  have  assisted  in  many  school-tax  elections  and 
school-bond  elections.  In  this  chapter  I  shall  men- 
tion some  of  the  difficulties  to  be  reckoned  with  and 
some  of  the  methods  and  arguments  I  have  seen 
used  to  best  advantage  in  school-tax  campaigns 
among  country  people.  And  permit  me  to  say  that 
simplicity  and  concreteness  are  two  of  the  cardinal 
notes  of  success  in  treating  any  subject  before  a 
rural  audience. 

i.  Methods  of  Public  Appeal. — Sometimes  it  is 
best  to  conduct  a  school-tax  campaign  by  a  well- 
organized  system  of  personal  interviews^  At  other 
times  it  is  best  to  supplement  this  campaign  of  indi- 
vidual solicitations  with  one  or  more  public  meet- 
ings. At  these  public  rallies  I  have  observed  that 
the  most  successful  campaigners  usually  employ  a 
combination  of  reason,  sentiment,  humor  and  sar- 
casm in  their  discussions. 

(a)  Reason. — Sound  logic  carries  with  it  an 
acceptable  dignity  that  is  respected  by  some  people 
who  would  resent  a  purely  sentimental  appeal.    And 

156 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL    1 5/ 

these  are  usually  the  people  whose  opinions  and 
influence  are  worth  the  most  in  shaping  the  affairs 
of  a  community.  It  is  best  to  address  them  in  the 
language  of  reason. 

(b)  Sentiment. — There  are  many  people  whose 
actions  are  influenced  more  by  sentiment  than  by 
the  higher  thought  processes.  Unfortunately  for 
democracy,  they  sometimes  constitute  the  balance  of 
power  or  even  the  majority  in  a  voting  precinct. 
The  successful  campaigner  must  always  be  mindful 
of  them.  They  are  in  every  rural  audience  that 
assembles. 

These  people  must  be  addressed  and  importuned 
through  the  channels  of  emotion.  Levity  and  pathos 
are  as  essential  as  logic  in  shaping  their  attitudes 
and  courses  of  action.  Argument  must  be  replete 
with  emotional  richness  and  concrete  simplicity  to 
accommodate  their  unskilled  habits  of  thought.  For 
instance,  a  man  from  a  university  faculty  was  one 
time  assisting  a  county  superintendent  in  a  very 
backward  county,  pleading  for  better  schools  for 
country  children.  An  obstinate  old  layman  opposed 
to  modern  progress  resented  his  doctrine  and  his 
presence  in  the  home  community.  For  several  days 
prior  to  this  educator's  coming  he  protested  among 
the  patrons  of  the  decadent  little  school :  "It  is  none 


I58    THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

of  that  man's  business  what  sort  of  school  we  have 
out  here/'  He  branded  him  as  an  interloper  and  a 
meddler.  Some  of  the  benighted  people  had  sided 
with  him.  But  at  the  proper  moment  on  the  occa- 
sion of  the  mass  meeting  set  for  that  community, 
the  speaker  made  an  impassioned  plea,  saying  most 
persuasively  and  emphatically:  "It  is  my  business 
what  sort  of  school  these  children  have!  When  1 
see  them  holding  up  their  white  hands  pleading  for 
an  even  start  with  their  city  competitors  in  the  race 
of  life  in  this  twentieth  century,  I  would  be  recreant 
to  my  duty  as  a  citizen  if  I  did  not  raise  my  voice  in 
their  behalf.  Their  blood  is  just  as  red  and  their 
birthrights  are  just  as  precious  as  those  of  the 
whitest  children  that  walk  our  city  streets.  They 
are  every  bit  as  good  as  their  more  fortunate  city 
cousins.  They  are  entitled  to  the  same  advantages. 
Are  they  getting  them  ?  Will  their  parents  and  their 
adult  friends  thoughtlessly  continue  to  stand  be- 
tween them  and  the  fortunes  of  a  beckoning  future 
by  not  voting  the  funds  and  equipping  a  school 
commensurate  witli  the  needs  of  this  new  day  in 
the  life  of  our  Nation?" 

Then  the  legal  form  for  a  tax  election  was 
adroitly  presented  and  explained.  Every  qualified 
voter  present,  save  one,  signed  on  the  dotted  lines, 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL    1 59 

and  the  next  day  the  election  notices  were  legally 
posted.  Three  weeks  later  the  election  was  held  and 
the  tax  was  carried  with  only  two  dissenting  votes. 

Cold  reasoning  would  have  passed  above  the 
heads  of  most  of  those  people.  It  took  reasoning 
seasoned  with  the  warmth  of  emotion  to  move  them 
to  action.  And  by  keeping  their  emotional  enthu- 
siasm kindled  till  election  day,  the  school's  financial 
distress  in  that  community  was  relieved. 

(c)  Sarcasm. — Sometimes  the  best  way  to  kill 
a  man's  influence  is  to  make  a  huge  joke  out  of  him. 
He  can  not  carry  his  point  with  everybody  laughing 
in  his  face.  For  instance,  one  time  there  was  a  tax 
election  pending  in  a  rural  district  near  the  town  of 
Taylor,  Texas.  Two  nights  before  the  day  of  the 
election  an  educational  rally  was  held  at  the  school- 
house.  An  absentee  landlord  from  Taylor  was  pres- 
ent. He  was  bitterly  opposed  to  the  tax.  He  had 
defeated  a  tax  election  the  year  before  by  intimidat- 
ing his  tenants.  This  time  he  was  endeavoring  to 
do  it  again.  So  the  main  speaker  of  the  evening 
kept  him  steadily  in  view.  When  he  had  the  minds 
of  his  hearers  properly  prepared,  he  told  this  story : 

"A  few  weeks  ago  I  saw  a  man  in  East  Texas 
who  presided  over  a  meeting  of  anti-school  tax- 
payers.    Nine  benighted   denizens   from  the  back- 


l6o    THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

woods  and  forks  of  the  creek  met  at  the  old 
schoolhouse  that  had  seen  service  for  more  than 
forty  years  to  unite  their  efforts  to  defeat  the  school 
tax  in  the  election  ten  days  later.  I  wish  you 
could  have  seen  the  chairman  of  that  convention. 
When  I  saw  him  he  was  standing  in  front  of  a  small 
grocery  store  leaning  against  an  iron  post  eating  a 
hamburger.  The  hamburger  was  of  the  big  fifteen- 
cent  variety.  I  judge  the  gentleman  was  hungry,  for 
each  bite  he  took  was  as  big  as  an  ordinary  biscuit. 
He  was  very  gaunt  and  more  than  six  feet  tall. 
His  neck  was  distressingly  long  and  slender.  An 
immense  Adam's  apple  raced  up  and  down  the  front 
side  of  it  in  response  to  each  bite  of  hamburger. 
On  the  top  end  of  his  neck  a  small-sized  human  head 
was  perched.  It  was  bald  down  to  the  ears  and 
decorated  with  a  huge  wart  on  its  apex.  I  walked 
around  him  three  times  in  amusement.  Then  I  said 
to  myself:  'Old  man,  of  course  you  would  vote 
against  a  school  tax.  You  and  all  your  kind  will 
do  it  every  time  you  get  a  chance.'  And  don't  you 
know,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  as  I  came  over  here  this 
afternoon  I  met  a  man  in  the  road  who  looked 
almost  like  that  old  fellow.  I  think  he  lives  at 
Taylor." 

The  entire  audience  saw  the  point.     There  was  a 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL    l6l 

mighty  burst  of  laughter  and  applause.  Then  the 
story  of  The  Stingiest  Man  in  the  World  was  told, 
and  closed  with  the  aspersion,  "I  wonder  if  he  lives 
at  Taylor,  too."  At  this  juncture  the  man  from 
Taylor  left  the  house  in  a  rage  of  anger  as  the 
audience  applauded  uproariously.  Then  an  appeal 
was  made  to  the  manhood  of  the  tenants  to  come  out 
and  stand  up  for  their  children  in  the  election  two 
days  later.    They  did,  and  the  tax  was  carried. 

Ordinarily,  sarcasm,  innuendo  and  bitter  asper- 
sions should  be  avoided.  But  there  are  instances 
where  their  use  is  abundantly  justified.  There  are 
some  enslaved  communities  that  never  can  be  free 
till  the  influence  of  certain  remorseless  persons 
oppressing  them  is  killed.  "Those  whom  the  gods 
would  destroy  they  first  make  mad."  There  is  no 
surer  method  for  crushing  a  heartless  landlord  with 
small  sympathies  for  education  and  helpless  children. 
Antagonize  him  and  make  him  accept  the  gage  of 
battle  out  in  the  open.  Show  him  up  and  clear  away 
the  subterfuges  he  hides  behind.  Then  if  he  grows 
desperate,  his  destruction  is  assured.  He  can  not 
survive  the  unpopularity  of  fighting  in  full  view. 
He  will  wither  in  the  sunshine  of  publicity  created 
by  his  own  acts. 

But  sarcasm  is  a  dangerous  weapon  in  the  hands 


l62    THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

of  the  amateur.  It  is  equally  as  dangerous  in  the 
hands  of  the  timid  and  fearful,  and  that  includes 
most  teachers,  for  teachers  as  a  tribe  are  not  very 
courageous.  Even  when  employed  by  the  cleverest 
of  experienced  campaigners,  it  sometimes  comes 
back  like  a  boomerang.  But  for  a  man  to  contend 
that  its  use  should  be  dispensed  with  entirely  in  rural 
campaigns,  is  a  prima  facie  admission  that  he  is  not 
well  acquainted  with  the  psychology  of  rural  groups. 
2.  The  School  as  a  Business  Investment  for  the 
Community. — In  a  new  and  developing  commun  ty 
a  good  school  is  an  exceedingly  valuable  business 
asset.  It  attracts  desirable  families  and  enhances 
property  values.  Nobody  has  been  more  keenly 
aware  of  this  than  the  practical  land  agents  an\d 
land  development  companies  in  Texas  the  last 
twenty  years. 

In  one  county  a  wealthy  banker  with  large  land- 
holdings  helped  build  eleven  schoolhouses  and  almost 
as  many  churches.  One  day  three  men  promoting  a 
new  church  came  to  him  for  assistance.  They  so- 
licited no  special  sum  but  expected  him  to  give  one 
hundred  dollars.  After  they  had  laid  the  case  before 
him,  he  said,  "If  you  men  will  put  up  a  new  house, 
paint  it,  and  finish  it  in  a  creditable  way,  I  will 
furnish  the  material."     And  he  did  furnish  it.     The 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL    163 

bill  was  five  hundred  and  ninety-two  dollars.  That 
sum  purchased  no  mean  amount  of  pine  lumber 
twenty  years  ago. 

A  year  later  one  of  the  members  of  this  commit- 
tee returned  to  this  generous  banker's  office  and 
said  to  him,  "If  I  could  only  give  as  you  have  given, 
I  should  be  a  happy  man."  And  the  banker  replied : 
"But  your  giving  would  be  quite  different  from 
mine.  It  would  be  real  charity.  You  would  give 
out  of  the  bigness  of  your  heart.  My  giving  has 
been  practical  business.  I  have  given  because  it  paid 
me  to  do  so.  Do  not  ascribe  any  of  the  credit  to  me 
for  building  that  church.  John  Parks  and  Sam 
Shaw  are  the  men  who  did  it.  They  paid  the  bill. 
The  day  the  last  nail  was  driven  in  that  house,  T 
raised  the  price  on  my  two  small  farms  just  to  the 
south  of  it  seven  hundred  dollars  and  one  thousand 
dollars  respectively.  Then  Parks  came  and  bought 
one  of  them  and  Shaw  the  other.  The  church  was 
the  advertisement  that  brought  me  the  purchasers. 
My  contribution  to  it  was  a  business  investment  and 
not  a  deed  of  charity.  So  it  has  been  with  most  of 
the  schools  and  churches  I  have  helped  build  in  this 
county." 

In  West  Texas,  in  1907,  during  the  life  of  C.  W. 
Post,  I  heard  him  say :  "I  mean  to  develop  these  two 


164    THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

hundred  sections  of  wild  land.  I  mean  to  enhance 
their  value  and  make  them  desirable  property  and 
attractive  places  for  people  to  live.  To  do  this, 
good  schools  and  good  roads  will  be  necessary.  I 
mean  to  construct  the  roads  out  of  my  own  capital 
and  build  comfortable  schoolhouses  as  the  people 
need  them." 

I  watched  that  colonization  project  conducted  by 
that  great  financier  until  his  death  in  1914.  In  some 
instances  land  prices  advanced  from  five  dollars  to 
sixty  dollars  per  acre.  And  at  no  time  did  this  man 
lose  sight  of  the  value  of  the  public  schools  and  the 
public  roads  as  instruments  in  the  profitable  develop- 
ment of  his  holdings.  He  regarded  them  as  good 
investments.  As  he  saw  it,  the  country  schoolhouse 
is  a  place  where  charity  and  business  meet.  The 
unwritten  rules  of  good  business,  as  well  as  the  spirit 
of  patriotism,  made  him  an  active  supporter  of 
public  education. 

The  financing  of  the  public  schools  and  the  pub- 
lic roads  paid  handsome  dividends  to  the  millionaire 
C.  W.  Post.  The  new  church,  previously  mentioned, 
enhanced  the  values  of  the  farms  purchased  by  John 
Parks  and  Sam  Shaw,  and  did  the  same  for  every 
other  farm  within  the  radius  of  its  influence. 
Schools,  roads  and  churches  are  fine  investments  in 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL    165 

any  new  and  developing  country.  And  the  oldest  of 
the  Southern  States  are  still  young  and  immature  in 
point  of  economic  growth.  The  high  plains  of  West 
Texas,  the  coastal  plains  of  South  Texas,  and  the 
millions  of  acres  of  cut-over  lands  in  East  Texas, 
Louisiana,  Alabama  and  Mississippi  are  lying  in  a 
state  of  semi-idleness  waiting  for  the  prosperous 
stimulus  of  better  roads,  better  schools,  better 
churches  and  more  people.  Indeed,  there  are  but 
few  counties,  if  any  at  all,  in  the  entire  South  so 
fully  developed  that  their  commercial  values  would 
not  respond  favorably  to  additional  investments  in 
school  and  road  improvements. 

3.  The  Wealth  of  the  Community  Must  Sup- 
port Its  Schools. — Four  years  ago  in  the  city  of  San 
Antonio  I  obtained  a  touching  story  from  a  Mexican 
refugee.  He  was  a  proud  Castilian  and  had  been  a 
man  of  wealth  and  affluence  in  his  country  prior  to 
the  revolution  that  forced  him  to  flee  to  Texas  for 
safety. 

He  said :  "In  Mexico  we  have  no  well-established 
system  of  public  education.  I  used  to  object  to  the 
theory  of  paying  taxes  for  the  educating  of  other 
people's  children.  I  thought  it  unjust.  It  was  too 
much  like  the  requisitioning  of  private  property  for 
the  benefit  of  particular  individuals.     But  when  the 


l66    THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

enemy  came  into  my  plantation  and  confiscated  my 
entire  harvest  of  wheat,  forty  thousand  sacks  then 
in  the  field,  I  had  a  change  of  mind.  I  saw  that 
every  acre  of  land  and  every  bushel  of  wheat  I  pos- 
sessed should  be  more  securely  protected.  And  don't 
you  know,  in  a  democracy,  the  best  protection  prop- 
erty can  have  is  the  protection  of  an  intelligent  bal- 
lot. And  the  only  way  to  guarantee  an  intelligent 
ballot  is  through  a  system  of  free  public  education. 
When  I  go  back  to  my  country,  if  I  am  ever  per- 
mitted to  do  so,  I  shall  go  on  record  with  what 
influence  I  have  for  a  system  of  free  schools  sup- 
ported by  a  system  of  ad  valorem  taxes  throughout 
the  republic.  Mexico  must  have  free  schools  like 
America  has.  It  is  up  to  the  real  and  personal 
property  of  all  the  people  to  foot  the  bills." 

Governmental  conditions  are  better  in  Texas 
than  in  Mexico.  Real  and  personal  property  values 
are  higher  on  the  north  side  of  the  Rio  Grande 
River  than  on  the  south  side  of  it.  Life,  wealth 
and  the  pursuit  of  happiness  are  infinitely  more  se- 
cure. America  is  a  better  place  for  civilized  people 
to  live.  Let  the  man  who  protests  against  the  pay- 
ment of  taxes  for  the  support  of  our  free  schools  go 
to  Mexico,  where  there  are  no  such  taxes  to  pay.  In 
that  torn  and  bleeding  republic  he  belongs.     He  is 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL    l6j 

not  worthy  of  the  protection  of  the  American  flag 
and  the  blessings  enlightenment  brings.  He  is 
criminally  selfish,  dangerously  short-sighted  and 
destitute  of  a  high  sense  of  honor.  He  deserves  the 
odium  of  a  slacker  and  the  contempt  of  all  whose 
hearts  are  true  to  American  ideals. 

4.  The  Inherent  Fear  of  Taxation. — On  a  circus 
day  a  group  of  school-boys  was  crowded  around  the 
monkeys'  cage.  They  were  feeding  the  monkeys 
nuts  and  bits  of  fruit.  A  score  of  grimacing  faces 
clamored  greedily  for  the  food.  Appetites  were  keen, 
and  numerous  begging  hands  and  arms  were  ex- 
tended for  more  to  eat.  Then  one  of  them  seized  a 
small  paper  bag  and  ran  away  with  it.  A  half  dozen 
hungry  comrades  followed  in  close  pursuit.  The  bag 
was  opened.  But  horrors !  a  small  striped  serpent 
wiggled  out  of  it,  and  there  was  sudden  consternation 
in  monkeydom.  There  were  wild  frantic  leaps  to 
places  of  safety  on  the  perches  in  the  top  of  the  cage. 
There  were  shrill  hysterical  shrieks  and  screams  dis- 
tressingly painful.  It  seemed  that  some  of  the 
monkeys,  old  and  young,  would  die  of  fear  in  spite 
of  all  their  keeper  could  do  to  pacify  them. 

A  week  later  one  of  the  boys  related  the  incident 
at  school.  His  teacher  heard  the  story  and  then  gave 
this  explanation.    He  said  :  "In  some  portions  of  the 


l68   THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

tropics  where  monkeys  live  in  great  abundance  there 
are  certain  arboreal  snakes  that  live  almost  entirely 
on  them.  They  have  done  so  for  hundreds  of  gen- 
erations. They  are  the  monkeys'  worst  enemies. 
For  that  reason  most  monkeys  have  an  instinctive 
fear  of  snakes.  This  fear  is  ingrained  into  their 
nervous  systems  from  birth.  It  is  so  deep-seated 
that  many  of  them  grow  frantic  at  the  very  sight  of 
a  snake." 

There  are  some  people  who  seem  to  fear  the 
principle  of  taxation  with  horrors  almost  as  deep- 
seated  as  the  monkeys'  fear  of  snakes.  They  grow 
frantic  every  time  a  new  tax  is  proposed.  Their 
conduct  when  a  local  tax  election  is  pending  is  no  less 
amusing  than  the  conduct  of  that  cage  of  frightened 
monkeys.  For  instance,  in  19 14,  in  Nacogdoches 
County,  Texas,  one  poor  old  fellow  with  five  chil- 
dren of  free  school  age  waged  a  bitter  campaign 
against  the  local  school  tax,  contending  that  the 
people  were  already  tax-ridden  and  burdened  with 
tribute-giving  beyond  the  point  of  endurance.  An 
examination  of  the  tax  rolls  revealed  the  fact  that 
his  only  property  listed  for  taxation  was  one  Jersey 
cow  and  the  taxes  had  not  been  paid  on  her  for 
three  years.  In  Collin  County  a  man  fought  a  road 
tax  with  the  same  kind  of  argument  when  his  taxable 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL    169 

wealth  consisted  of  nothing  but  a  cheap  Elgin  watch 
and  a  white  English  bulldog.  Again,  in  Erath 
County  an  old  fellow  whose  tax  was  only  sixty- 
three  cents  and  whose  three  children  of  free  school 
age  received  benefits  from  the  school  tax  to  the 
amount  of  thirty  dollars,  was  the  bitterest  enemy  the 
school  tax  had.  I  might  tabulate  a  long  list  of 
extreme  cases  like  these  and  a  much  longer  list  of 
cases  less  extreme. 

Just  how  much  of  this  active  opposition  to  local 
taxes  is  attributable  to  the  instinct  of  fear  and  how 
much  to  the  instinct  of  acquisition  and  the  spirit 
of  greed,  I  am  not  qualified  to  say.  But  after  having 
observed  a  large  number  of  cases,  I  am  persuaded  to 
believe  that  more  times  than  not  it  is  an  expression 
of  the  instinct  of  fear.  It  leads  lone  to  think  that, 
before  the  rise  and  practise  of  democracy,  when  the 
kings  and  nobles  were  in  the  ascendency  exacting 
tribute  from  the  common  people  for  centuries, 
the  pains  of  oppression  left  permanent  traces  of  fear 
and  apprehension  in  the  nerves  of  all  the  genera- 
tions of  men  that  have  followed.  To  say  the  least, 
with  many  poorly  informed  country  people  in  the 
South  to-day  taxation  and  oppression  are 
synonymous. 

Yet,  most  of  these  poorly  informed,  semi-illiter- 


I70    THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

I 

ate,  frantic  fighters-of-taxes-in-all-forms  are  amen- 
able to  reason  when  properly  approached.  But  to 
approach  them  effectively  and  successfully,  yoii  must 
know  them.  You  must  know  their  language,  ideals, 
attitudes,  interests,  sensibilities  and  capacities  for 
understanding.  Many  county  superintendents  are 
failing  every  year  because  of  an  imperfect  knowledge 
of  the  people  whom  they  seek  to  lead.  They  could 
profit  much  by  the  little  boy's  advice  to  the  professor. 
When  the  professor  could  not  get  a  pet  dog  to  jump 
over  a  stick  for  him  as  it  had  done  for  the  boy  and 
began  showing  signs  of  impatience  and  exasperation, 
the  boy  admonishingly  said,  "Professor,  you've  got 

to  have  more  sense  than  the  dog." 

.     .  .  .  -1  . 

When  the  most  primitive-minded  community   is 

sympathetically  shown  that  schools  are  good  invest- 
ments, that  education  is  the  public's  best  protection, 
that  school  taxes  are  imposed  democratically  rather 
than  autocratically,  and  that  a  school  tax  requires 
only  a  very  small  portion  of  the  community's  in- 
come, I  have  found  no  insurmountable  difficulty  ^1 
voting  funds  for  school  maintenance.  The  morp 
enlightened  communities  support  public  education 
because  they  realize  these  values.  It  is  a  function  of 
the  county  superintendent  and  the  educational  mis- 
sionary in  all  capacities  to  simplify  these  values  arid 

I 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL    I7I 

( 

make  them  so  plain  that  the  crudest  illiterate  in  all 
the  land  can  understand  them.  It  is  not  in  centers  of 
culture,  but  in  remote  precincts  of  this  great  nation 
of  ours  that  the  light  of  education  needs  most  to 
penetrate  and  drive  darkness  from  the  souls  of  men. 
It  is  in  the  most  backward  communities  that  the 
principle  of  ad  valorem  taxation  for  the  support  of 
free  schools  is  least  understood.  It  is  there  that 
"tax"  is  one  of  the  most  unpopular  words  in  com- 
mon use.  There  is  the  place  where  the  people  reside 
who  are  least  able  to  figure  for  themselves,  and 
where  the  most  elementary  explanations  are  neces- 
sary. To  convince  them  that  a  tax  of  fifty  cents  on 
each  one  hundred  dollars  of  wealth  is  not  confisca- 
tory or  unreasonable,  I  have  often  taken  a  silver  dol- 
lar and  put  a  one-cent  postage  stamp  by  the  side  of  it 
and  shown  that  one-half  of  the  value  of  the  stamp  is 
sufficient  to  pay  the  tax  on  the  dollar  for  one  year. 
Then  they  are  reminded  that  the  dollar  is  capable  of 
earning  eight  cents  per  annum  when  put  at  interest. 
And  when  it  is  made  clear  and  emphatic  that  no 
thoughtful,  patriotic  man  would  be  so  close  and  mis- 
erly as  to  begrudge  one-half  cent  of  this  dollar's 
earnings  to  a  cause  so  sacred  as  the  cause  of  educa- 
tion for  helpless  children,  enough  voters  to  make 
the  required  majority  on  election  day  will  usually 


172    THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

see  the  light.  And  this  is  typical  of  the  methods 
and  devices  that  must  be  employed  by  the  practical 
field  worker  to  overcome  the  inherent  fear  of  taxa- 
tion so  prevalent  in  many  backward  rural  localities. 

5.  Poverty  a  State  of  Mind — Some  people  of 
wealth  feel  as  though  they  are  very  poor.  Others  of 
very  moderate  means  have  the  bearing  and  enjoy  the 
feelings  of  opulence.  They  have  the  faculty  of  ac- 
quiring most  of  the  comforts  and  conveniences  of 
life  in  spite  of  the  forbidding  limitations  of  their 
bank-accounts.  Their  outlook  on  life  is  not  be- 
clouded with  gloom.  The  deadening  sense  of  poverty 
does  not  weigh  heavily  on  their  heads.  They  possess 
the  spirit  of  buoyancy,  thrift  and  brightness  that 
guarantees  individual  prosperity  and  gives  strength 
to  organized  society. 

And  so  it  is  with  communities.  Some  are  cour 
ageous,  confident,  decisive  in  spirit,  and  always 
ready  to  champion  any  worthy  public  undertaking 
Others  are  stupid,  motionless  and  morbidly  de 
pressed  with  an  inordinate  consciousness  of  their 
own  weakness  and  inability  to  do  things.  This  is 
particularly  true  of  many  rural  places.  The  sicken- 
ing consciousness  of  poverty  is  cheating  thousands 
of  country  communities  in  the  South  out)of  adequate 
free  schools  every  year. 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL    173 

And  the  fact  is,  the  per  capita  wealth  in  some  of 
these  poverty-conscious  country  districts  with  the 
school  facilities  of  half  a  century  ago  is  almost  as 
great  as  the  per  capita  wealth  in  the  neighboring 
urban  centers  with  the  best  of  modern  free-school 
advantages.  For  instance,  in  19 17,  in  a  rural  area 
including  fourteen  school  districts  in  sight  of  the 
city  of  Austin,  the  per  capita  wealth  was  three  hun- 
dred and  eighty-five  dollars  as  compared  with  the 
per  capita  wealth  of  four  hundred  and  forty-nine 
dollars  in  Austin.  But  Austin  spent  sixty-seven  and 
one-tenth  cents  per  one  hundred  dollars  of 
wealth  on  its  public  schools  that  year  as  compared 
with  an  expenditure  of  seven  and  three-tenths 
cents  per  one  hundred  dollars  of  wealth  in  this 
rural  area.  In  other  words,  when  measured  by 
ability  to  pay,  Austin  is  more  than  nine  times  as 
liberal  in  the  support  of  its  free  schools  as  this 
group  of  country  districts.  Yet  there  is  a  common 
feeling  among  these  country  people  that  Austin's 
superior  schools  are  due  to  its  superior  ability  to 
finance  them. 

There  is  no  kind  of  education  more  necessary 
among  most  country  people  just  now  than  education 
on  the  subject  of  giving.  These  people  may  be 
evangelized  and  successfully  converted  to  the  values 


174    THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 


of  all  that  is  modern  and  best  for  the  education 
welfare  of  their  children ;  but  until  this  blinding  di 
lusion  of  poverty  is  dispelled,  we  can  hope  for  no 
very  substantial  advancement  in  the  character  and 
quality  of  their  schools. 

6.  Farm  Tenants  Show  Little  Interest  in  School 
Finances. — There  are  four  main  causes  for  the  ten- 
ant's general  lack  of  interest  in  the  financial  sup- 
port of  the  schools  his  children  attend :  ( i )  intimi- 
dation from  landlords,  (2)  despondency,  (3) 
shiftlessness,  (4)  poverty.  J 

While  there  are  many  bitter  charges  of  overt 
intimidation  of  tenants  by  covetous  landlords,  most 
of  them,  on  investigation,  prove  untrue.  Even  the 
hardest  of  landlords  are  seldom  so  imprudent  as  to 
make  a  blatant  threat  to  remove  a  tenant  or  raise  the 
rent.  Their  untoward  attitude  usually  finds  expres- 
sion in  subtler  ways.  They  speak  the  language  of 
discouragement  with  great  skill.  They  plead  hard 
times  and  high  prices.  They  advocate  deferring 
school  improvements  to  some  later  date.  "Next 
year"  is  the  time  usually  set.  When  a  bond  issue 
is  proposed  for  building  a  new  schoolhouse,  they  can 
easily  show  why  it  should  be  built  by  private  dona- 
tions. But  no  matter  what  the  subterfuge  employed, 
the  deadly  effects  are  always  the  same. 


I 


" 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL    1 75 

Despondency,  shiftlessness  and  poverty  hang  like 
millstones  on  the  necks  of  most  tenant  communities. 
"I  work  all  the  time,"  said  an  intelligent  tenant 
farmer  twenty-eight  years  old.  "It  is  all  I  can  do 
to  clothe  and  feed  my  five  babies.  Land  is  one 
hundred  and  fifty  dollars  per  acre.  As  for  owning 
a  home — well,  there  is  no  chance  for  me." 

"Our  system  of  land  tenure  is  most  damnable," 
said  another  well-informed  tenant.  "Why  beautify 
the  front  yard,  install  running  water  in  the  house, 
keep  up  the  lot  fences,  and  repaint  the  schoolhouse 
for  somebody  else's  benefit  next  year  ?  My  contract 
to  work  this  farm  lasts  only  to  the  end  of  December. 
If  I  had  a  ten-year  contract,  I  guess  my  attitude 
toward  the  farm  and  the  community  would  be  dif- 
ferent. Our  system  of  4and  tenure  is  responsible 
for  much  of  the  shiftlessness  and  lack  of  public 
enterprise  among  the  tenant;  classes." 

It  is  all  but  futile  to  inaugurate  any  scheme  for 
social  and  educational  reform  and  at  the  same  time 
ignore  its  fundamental  hindering  causes.  That  the 
problems  of  education  can  ever  be  successfully 
solved  in  a  community  of  high-priced  land  and  farm 
tenants  is  very  doubtful  to  any  one  thoroughly  con- 
versant with  such  conditions.  The  homeless  man  is 
limited  in  his  usefulness  as  a  citizen.     He  seldom 


v 


,  \ 


I76    THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

identifies  himself  with  the  church,  school  and  civic 
interests  of  the  neighborhood  as  he  would  if  he 
owned  the  land  he  lives  on.  He  may  be  a  good 
school  patron,  but  the  exhilarating  stimulus  of  home- 
ownership  would  make  him  a  better  one. 

7.  Absentee  Landlords  Object  to  Local  School 
Taxes — There  is  not  a  county  in  the  rich  Black 
Land  Belt  of  Texas  where  as  many  as  fifty  per  cent, 
of  the  farmers  own  their  homes.  In  Collin  County 
sixty-nine  per  cent,  of  them  are  tenants.  The  same 
is  true  in  Ellis  County.  And  in  some  portions  of  the 
rich  Brazos  Valley  outside  of  the  Black  Land  Coun- 
ties, the  percentage  of  farm  tenancy  is  even  higher. 

I  have  found  no  place  in  the  state  where  it  is 
more  difficult  to  vote  local  school  taxes  than  in 
these  areas  of  high-priced  land,  farm  tenants  and 
absentee  landlords.  And  this  difficulty  is  by  no 
means  confined  to  the  negro-tenant  communities 
within  the  area  described.  In  many  white-tenant 
communities  of  English-speaking  Americans  a 
school  tax  is  just  as  surely  foredoomed  to  failuve. 
There  are  two  primary  causes  for  it :  ( 1 )  the  inher- 
ent fear  of  taxation  on  the  part  of  many  poorly  in- 
formed tenants,  (2)  the  spirit  of  acquisition  and 
greed  on  the  part  of  the  landlords. 

In  making  a  close  examination  of  a  tenant  area 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL    1 77 

of  two  hundred  square  miles  and  more  than  thirteen 
thousand  population  in  Travis  County,  I  found  that 
only  one  absentee  landlord  out  of  a  group  of  more 
than  thirty  had  actively  encouraged  his  tenants  to 
vote  for  a  school  tax.  The  following  is  typical  of 
some  of  the  information  gathered  from  school 
patrons :  "If  you  want  to  know  what  makes  our 
school  one  of  the  sorriest  in  Travis  County,  I  can 
tell  you  in  a  very  few  words.  This  community  is 
owned  and  controlled  by  three  men  who  do  not  live 
here.  They  keep  their  tenants  in  fear  of  them.  Two 
years  ago  when  we  were  circulating  a  petition  for  a 
tax  election,  Mr.  A  came  out  and  said  to  his  tenants : 
'You  vote  a  tax  on  me  and  I  will  see  that  you  pay  it. 
I  will  raise  the  rent  on  the  last  one  of  you.'  Mr.  B 
came  out  and  said  to  his  tenants,  'Gentleman,  you 
may  vote  a  tax  on  me  if  you  choose,  but  you  can 
prepare  to  move  next  year  if  you  do.'  Their  bluffs 
carried.  That  was  the  last  of  the  proposed  school 
tax.  You  have  found  our  school  in  a  deplorable 
condition,  and  I  see  no  hope  for  any  immediate 
improvement." 

When  a  landlord  accumulates  wealth  and  moves 
to  town,  he  usually  loses  interest  in  the  welfare  of 
the  community  where  he  gained  his  financial  inde- 
pendence.    He  feels  no  longer  obligated  to  support 


I78    THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

the  rural  institutions  of  the  people  who  were  once 
his  country  neighbors.  Sometimes  he  grows  actively 
unsympathetic  toward  all  public  enterprises  in  the 
rural  precincts  from  whence  he  came.  But,  for- 
tunately for  country  children,  it  is  getting  more  un- 
popular all  the  time  for  a  landlord  to  oppose  a 
school  tax.  For  that  reason,  it  is  growing  less  diffi- 
cult to  vote  school  taxes  in  some  of  the  counties 
where  the  tenant  population  is  heaviest.  So  much 
to  the  credit  of  relentless  publicity. 

As  a  remedy  for  the  unsympathetic  attitude  of 
the  absentee  landlord  toward  rural-school  finances, 
I  wish  to  make  two  recommendations  :  ( 1 )  a  gradu- 
ated land  tax  so  distributed  as  to  place  the  burden 
of  it  on  the  larger  estate;  (2)  ah  extension  of  the 
state's  credit  providing  long-time  payments  and  low 
rates  of  interest  for  tenant  farmers  desirous  of  own- 
ing homes.  But  since  a  discussion  of  these  proposi- 
tions falls  within  the  province  of  the  economist,  I 
shall  not  make  the  attempt  to  discuss  them  here. 

8.  A  County-School  Tax — A  county-wide 
school  tax  would  do  much  toward  relieving  the 
financial  distress  of  many  school  districts  now  suf- 
fering from  artificial  economic  pressure  imposed 
from  without.  No  other  one  measure  would  do 
more   for  the   immediate   financial   relief  of  many 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL    179 

rural  schools  in  tenant  communities  dominated  by 
non-resident  owners  of  land.  And  until  outside 
assistance  is  given  to  some  of  these  communities, 
economically  helpless  because  of  conditions  over 
which  they  have  no  control,  their  schools  must  con- 
tinue in  a  state  of  most  abject  squalor. 

THOUGHT  QUESTIONS 

1.  Sometimes  it  is  best  to  hold  a  public  rally  when 
a  school-tax  election  is  pending,  but  this  is  not  always 
so.  Give  examples  of  when  it  would  be  best  and  of 
when  it  would  not  be  best.  Why  is  an  emotional 
appeal  to  voters  sometimes  as  essential  as  a  logical 
appeal  ? 

2.  If  the  doors  of  all  the  schools  and  churches  in 
your  home  community  were  permanently  closed,  many 
of  the  best  families  would  soon  move  away.  What  ef- 
fect would  this  have  on  real  estate  values? 

3.  Why  are  most  business  investments  unsafe  in 
Mexico?  In  what  respect  are  free  schools  guarantors 
of  property  rights  in  a  democracy?  Why  should  each 
person  be  required  to  support  the  public  school  in  pro- 
portion to  his  ability  to  pay  ? 

4.  Some  persons  oppose  taxation  because  of  covet- 
ousness,  others  because  of  fear.  Give  examples  of 
both  groups.  Why  are  the  smallest  taxpayers  some- 
times the  bitterest  opponents  of  an  ad  valorem  school 
tax?  In  very  backward  communities  it  is  usually  dif- 
ficult to  vote  a  school  tax.     Why  ? 

5.  Many  people  contend  that  the  country  can  never 
have   as  good   schools  as  the  towns  because   of  the 


l80    THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

country's  lack  of  wealth  and  its  inability  to  pay  for 
them.  Is  this  contention  real  or  imaginary?  When 
measured  in  terms  of  per  capita  wealth,  which  are  more 
liberal  in  the  support  of  public  education,  the  rural  dis- 
tricts or  the  town  centers  ? 

6.  What  per  cent,  of  your  school  patrons  are  farm 
tenants?  Give  some  reasons  why  farm  tenants,  as  a 
rule,  do  not  take  active  parts  in  school  affairs.  Would 
home-ownership  make  most  farm  tenants  better  school 
patrons  ? 

7.  Why  are  absentee  landlords  inimical  to  the  best 
interest  of  rural  schools?  Have  you  ever  known  of 
one  encouraging  a  tenant  to  vote  for  a  school  tax? 
Landlords  in  Texas  are  less  violent  in  their  opposition 
to  school  taxes  than  they  were  five  years  ago.     Why  ? 

8.  Give  some  of  the  benefits  to  be  derived  from  a 
county-wide  school  tax. 


CHAPTER  XI 
Roads  and  Communication 

i.  A  Village  School  That  Stood  for  Good 
Roads. — A  map  made  by  a  student  showed  the 
roads  of  the  community,  indicating  existing  condi- 
tions as  to  the  distribution  and  availability  of  gravel, 
earth  and  macadam  suitable  for  road  construction. 
It  also  showed  that  there  was  an  excessive  mileage 
of  roads — that  distances  could  be  shortened  and  the 
cost  of  upkeep  lessened  if  the  roads  were  differently 
arranged.  One  road  running  parallel  to  a  creek  for 
more  than  a  mile  was  subject  to  periodical  overflows 
very  destructive  to  its  hard  surface.  It  was  pro- 
posed this  stretch  of  road  be  moved  to  higher  land 
only  a  short  distance  away  so  as  to  reduce  the  cost 
of  maintenance.  The  older  pupils  were  familiar 
with  the  costs  of  earth  excavations,  gravel,  broken 
stone  and  concrete  for  that  particular  locality.  At 
the  close  of  the  school  one  member  of  the  graduat- 
ing class  read  an  interesting  paper  on  The  Advan- 
tages of  Good  Roads.  Here  are  some  striking 
statements  I  have  gleaned  from  it : 

( i )  "Good  roads  overcome  many  of  the  di$- 
181 


l82    THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

advantages  of  distance,  and  the  advantages  of  living 
in  town  are  thus  transferred  to  the  country." 

(2)  "Good    roads    have    established    a    better 

feeling  between   country   people   and   town  people^ 

While  the  city  people  go  to  the  country   for  the 

pleasures  of  outdoor  life,  the  farmer  and  his  family 

have  come  to  know  the  city  better." 

-"1 

(3)  "Good  roads  do  much  to  overcome  the 
monotony  of  isolation  and  check  the  movement  frorn 
the  country  to  town." 

(4)  "Bad  roads,  more  than  any  other  factor,? 
tend  toward  isolation  and  individualism,  which  are 
directly  opposed  to  organization  and  cooperation. 
Good  roads,  on  the  other  hand,  distinctly  in- 
vite social  intercourse  and  promote  fraternal 
understanding. 

(5)  "Good  roads  build  up  the  social  and  moral 
tone  of  the  community,  improve  school  conditions, 
increase  property  values,  and  stimulate  civilization-' 
and  advancement  in  all  lines." 

(6)  "Improved   roads   will   increase   the  value 
of  farm  lands  within  a  mile  of  the  road,  on  each" 
side,  at  least  five  dollars  per  acre." 

(7)  "In    1912,   the   New   York   State   Depart-./ 
ment  of  Agriculture  found  that  the  average  value 
of  all  the  farms  in  New  York  located  on  earth  roads 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL    183 

was  thirty-five  dollars  and  twenty-one  cents  per 
acre  and  the  average  value  of  all  the  farms  on 
macadam  and  other  improved  roads  was  fifty-one 
dollars  and  seventeen  cents  per  acre." 

(8)  "The  valuation  of  Harris  County,  Texas, 
in  1906,  was  forty-eight  million  dollars.  Then  it 
had  only  a  few  miles  of  improved  roads.  By  191 1 
it  had  three  hundred  and  fifty  miles  of  improved 
roads  built  at  a  cost  of  four  thousand  five  hundred 
dollars  per  mile  and  the  valuation  of  the  county  was 
one  hundred  and  twenty  million  dollars." 

(9)  "The  increase  in  land  values  is  sufficient, 
and  in  some  cases  more  than  sufficient,  to  enable 
the  landowner  to  pay  his  road  tax  in  additional  with- 
out an  increase  in  the  rate  of  levy."    J 

(10)  "Bad  roads  diminish  the  profits  of  the 
farmer  by  forcing  him  to  make  more  trips,  haul 
smaller  loads,  consume  more  time,  and  market  his 
produce  when  the  roads  are  passable  rather  than  at 
those  times  when  the  markets  are  best." 

(11)  "Good  roads  increase  the  profits  of  the 
farmer  by  enabling  him  to  make  quicker  trips,  haul 
larger  loads,  and  market  his  produce  when  the 
markets  are  best." 

(12)  "If  all  the  roads  were  hard  and  smooth, 
the  wagons  would   last   much   longer,   each   horse 


184    THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

would  require  much  less  feed  and  attention,  and 
the  bills  for  horseshoeing,  repairing  of  harness,  and 
the  purchase  of  new  harness  would  be  reduced  to  a 
minimum." 

( 13)  "If  the  roads  of  this  county  were  in  first 
class  condition,  it  would  save  the  automobiles  a 
least  one  cent  on  every  mile  traveled.  That  savin 
alone  would  amount  to  more  than  twenty  thousand 
dollars  per  year,  which  would  more  than  pay  the 
interest  and  create  the  sinking  fund  on  the  amount 
of  bonds  necessary  for  putting  the  roads  in  good 
condition." 

(14)  "The  attendance  of  children  at  school  is\ 
governed  very  largely  by  the  condition  of  the  roads  \ 
over  which  they  pass  in  order  to  reach  the  school-  J 
house,    and    the    average    attendance    of    the    child 
determines  to  a  great  extent  the  measure  of  benefits 
he  receives  from  the  school."  ^. 

(15)  "A  rural  church  survey  in  a  populous 
section  of  Southwestern  Ohio  reveals  the  fact  that 
where  the  roads  are  poorest  the  population  is  de-J 
creasing.  Where  the  number  of  miles  of  improved 
roads  is  the  greatest,  both  the  church  membership 
and  the  enrollment  per  church  are  greatest." 

(16)  "The  men  who  are  chosen  as  county  road 
commissioners  handle  the  county's  money  and  are 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL    185 

conservative  guardians  of  the  treasury.  Their 
conspicuous  defect  is  the  lack  of  positive  knowledge 
about  road  construction  and  road  administration. 
As  a  rule  their  entire  experience  has1  been  gained 
from  one  town  or  one  county." 

This  school's  interest  and  instruction  in  the 
advantages  of  good  roads  had  permeated  most  of 
the  citizenry  of  the  community.  The  quiet  work 
of  education  done  in  a  modest  way  at  the  school- 
house  had  set  many  of  the  voters  to  thinking  and 
making  intelligent  calculations.  One  farmer  pre- 
sented his  case  thus :  "I  live  nine  miles  from  town. 
It  takes  one  wagon  one  hundred  days  per  year  to 
market  my  hay,  corn  and  cotton.  It  costs  about 
four  dollars  per  day  to  maintain  a  wagon,  team  and 
driver.  I  am  put  to  an  expense  of  four  hundred 
dollars  per  year  to  market  my  farm  produce.  If 
the  roads  were  in  the  condition  they  should  be,  I 
could  double  the  size  of  the  loads  and  market  my 
crops  in  half  the  time  with  a  saving  of  two  hundred 
dollars.  In  other  words,  I  am  paying  an  annual 
mud  tax  of  two  hundred  dollars  on  the  roads  we 
now  have.  My  proportionate  part  of  the  tax  neces- 
sary to  make  good  roads  would  be  only  forty- five 
dollars  per  year."  This  man  was  for  the  ad 
valorem  tax  rather  than  for  the  less  obvious  but 


l86    THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

more  expensive  mud  tax  that  so  many  farmers  pay 
every  year  and  fail  to  see.  Much  of  his  enlighten- 
ment on  the  advantages  of  better  roads  had  come 
through  his  fifteen-year-old  son  at  school. 

2.  The  Chronic  Opponent  of  Public  Improve- 
ments.— When  the  road  bond  election  was  held  at 
McKinney,  Texas,  in  1914,  the  country  lanes  were 
like  so  many  interminable  miles  of  oppressive  quag- 
mire. One  farmer  drove  in  on  the  brick  pavement 
with  wagon  wheels  that  were  solid  with  mud.  He 
paid  a  negro  fifty  cents  to  clean  the  mud  off  while 
he  went  and  voted  against  better  roads.  The  same 
day,  five  fellows  hitched  four  big  mules  to  a  wagon 
and  drove  six  miles  through  mud  hub-deep  to  get 
to  the  polls  to  vote  against  the  road  tax.  Some  of 
these  very  men  had  cotton  at  home  that  they  could 
not  get  to  market,  and  the  price  was  going  down 
every  day.  There  are  other  men  like  them.  I 
could  make  a  long  list  of  their  obdurate  kind  who 
are  uncomprisingly  opposed  to  taxes  of  all  sorts  and 
are  too  short-sighted  to  see  the  value  and  economy 
of  stable  public  improvements.  It  is  quite  futile  to 
try  to  educate  some  of  them  to  a  new  point  of  vi 
The  only  hope  in  their  cases  is  to  reach  their  chilV 
dren  through  the  public  schools  and  rear  a  mon 
enlightened  generation  of  voters  and  public-spirited 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL    187 

citizens.  Then  we  may  hope  for  more  citizens  like 
the  farmer  near  Bonham,  Texas,  who  remarked, 
after  paying  a  repair  bill  of  five  dollars  and  eighty- 
five  cents  on  his  broken  harness  as  a  result  of  getting 
stuck  in  a  mud-hole,  ''This  is  one  of  the  indirect 
methods  we  farmers  have  of  paying  our  road  taxes." 
Or,  peradventure,  there  may  be  some  like  the  good- 
natured  old  gardener  near  Harrisburg,  Texas,  in 
1 9 14.  As  a  big  van  passed  by  with  sixty  merry 
children  in  it,  he  said :  "Since  they  fixed  these  roads, 
haulin'  them  school  kids  is  like  haulin'  my  tomatoes. 
You  can  load  your  wagon  down  with  them,  but  you 
can  not  overload  your  team.  It  is  not  a  question 
of  what  your  team  can  pull,  but  how  much  your 
wagon  will  hold  up.  I  tell  you,  I  sure  am  for  these 
good  roads." 

3.  Public  Roads  and  Public  Schools — The 
condition  of  the  public  roads  in  a  given  locality  is 
not  an  infallible  index  to  the  character  of  the  public 
school,  but  is  one  that  can  be  relied  upon  with  a 
reasonable  degree  of  accuracy.  Occasionally  a 
good  school  may  be  found  in  a  locality  where  the 
roads  are  very  bad ;  but,  as  a  rule,  the  best  schools 
are  found  where  the  best  roads  are.  The  relation 
between  the  roads  and  the  schools  is  so  intimate 
that  the  advocates  of  better  schools  must  also  be 


155    THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

advocates  of  better  roads.  When  I  read  of  a  road 
tax  being  adopted  or  hear  of  a  commissioner's  court 
appropriating  liberally  for  roads,  culverts  and 
bridges,  I  regard  it  as  money  applied  for  educational 
advancement  as  well  as  for  social  and  economic 
advantage. 

4.  Transportation  of  Pupils  at  Public  Expense 
at  Harrisburg,  Texas. — The  town  of  Harrisburg  is 
seven  miles  from  the  city  of  Houston.  It  has  about 
twelve  hundred  inhabitants.  There  are  three  small 
incorporated  towns  in  the  Harrisburg  common- 
school  district :  Magnolia  Park,  Park  Place  and 
Harrisburg.  The  district  has  a  scholastic  pop- 
ulation of  about  one  thousand  pupils,  and  has  five 
schools  employing  twenty-nine  teachers.  Thirteen 
of  the  teachers  are  employed  in  the  central  school  at 
Harrisburg. 

The  central  school  docs  twenty  standard  units  of 
high-school  work.  It  has  well-equipped  labora- 
tories for  physics,  chemistry,  physiology,  biology, 
manual  training  and  domestic  science.  Hot  lunches 
are  provided  for  the  pupils  each  day  at  actual  cost. 
A  free  medical  clinic  for  the  pupils  is  also  main- 
tained by  the  school.  In  addition  to  all  these 
advantages,  the  athletics  and  social-center  work  are 
well  organized. 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL    1 89 

The  first  experiment  in  transporting  pupils  at 
public  expense  was  inaugurated  in  19 12.  A  large 
van  with  room  for  sixty  pupils  was  put  into  oper- 
ation between  Magnolia  Park  and  Harrisburg — a 
distance  of  two  miles.  In  191 3  another  van  was 
operated  between  Park  Place  and  Harrisburg  with 
accommodations  for  twenty-five  pupils.  In  19 14 
the  Park  Place  van  was  displaced  by  a  Ford  car 
and  trailer,  and  the  car  and  trailer  have  since  been 
displaced  by  a  strong  motor  truck  with  a  capacity  for 
thirty  pupils.  This  particular  truck  delivers  two 
loads  of  children  to  the  Harrisburg  school  each 
morning — twenty-seven  from  Park  Place  and 
twenty  from  Brookline.  These  two  places  are  in 
the  Harrisburg  district  about  two  miles  each  from 
the  central  school. 

At  present  there  are  one  hundred  and  seventy- 
two  pupils  transported  to  the  Harrisburg  school  at 
public  expense.  One  hundred  and  seven  reside  in 
the  Harrisburg  district  and  sixty-five  in  other  dis- 
tricts. While  public  transportation  of  pupils  has 
been  operating  within  the  district  since  1912,  it 
was  not  extended  beyond  it  until  1916. 

Three  years  ago  a  privately  owned  motor  truck 
was  put  into  use  between  Elena  and  Harrisburg  at 
a  cost  of  one  hundred  and  ten  dollars  per  month. 


I90    THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

Elena  is  twenty  miles  from  Harrisburg.  This 
truck  takes  three  high-school  pupils  from  Elena 
each  morning  and  collects  all  the  pupils  above  the 
sixth  grade  from  the  small  schools  at  Lynchburg, 
Deer  Park,  San  Jacinto  and  Deepwater. 

In  19 16  a  Ford  car  and  trailer  were  used  be- 
tween South  Houston  and  Harrisburg.  It  conveyed 
eighteen  high-school  pupils  to  the  Harrisburg  school 
that  year.  It  has  since  been  displaced  by  a  motor 
truck  purchased  jointly  by  the  South  Houston  and 
the  Genoa  school  districts  at  a  cost  of  nine  hundred 
and  fifty  dollars.  It  is  driven  by  a  high-school  boy 
from  South  Houston  and  carries  twenty-seven 
children. 

But  the  most  unique  of  all  the  public  conveyances 
for  taking  pupils  to  and  from  school  is  the  motor 
boat  from  Penn  City  to  Harrisburg.  It  began  as  a 
private  conveyance  for  school  purposes  in  1913. 
Last  year  it  was  operated  by  the  public  at  a  cost  of 
eighty  dollars  per  month.  This  boat  leaves  Penn 
City  on  the  ship  canal  fourteen  miles  from  Harris- 
burg and  collects  fifteen  children  on  the  way. 

By  means  of  public  transportation  for  pupils,  the 
benefits  of  the  central  high  school  at  Harrisburg 
are  being  extended  to  pupils  twenty  miles  in  one 
direction,  fourteen  miles  in  another,  and  ten  miles 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL    191 

in  still  another.  It  is  a  magnificent  example  of  the 
extension  of  high-school  privileges  to  country  chil- 
dren. As  our  country  roads  in  the  South  continue 
to  improve,  many  schools  in  the  future  will  emulate 
this  example. 


THOUGHT  QUESTIONS 

Town  people  and  country  people  are  much  more 
cordial  with  each  other  than  they  were  when  I  can  first 
remember.  Give  some  of  the  reasons  for  this  increas- 
ing cordiality.  Show  that  bad  roads  foster  selfish- 
ness and  individualism,  while  good  roads  encourage 
cooperation  and  public  enterprise.  How  do  good 
roads  build  up  the  social  and  moral  tone  of  the  com- 
munity? Does  farm  land  on  the  improved  roads  of 
your  county  have  a  better  value  than  land  of  the 
same  quality  ten  miles  from  such  roads?  If  better 
roads  in  your  county  would  save  one  cent  per 
mile  on  automobiles,  what  would  the  annual  saving 
amount  to?  Are  any  of  your  pupils  ever  prevented 
from  attending  school  because  of  bad  roads?  What 
training  has  your  county  road  commissioner  had  to 
qualify  him  for  the  office  he  holds?  What  does  he 
know  about  road  construction  and  road  administra- 
tion? How  much  would  good  roads  save  the 
average  farmer  in  your  school  district  in  the  market- 
ing of  his  farm  products  each  year?  Would  better 
roads  be  conducive  to  school  consolidation  and  the 
enlargement  of  educational  activities  in  your  locality? 


192    THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 


REFERENCES 


Bulletins  of  the  U.  S.  Department  of  Agriculture, 

Washington,  D.  C. 

Bui,  No.     48,     Repair  and  Maintenance  of  Highways. 
Width     of     Wagon     Tires     Recom- 
mended for  Loads  of  Varying  Magni- 
tudes on  Earth  and  Gravel  Roads. 
Highivay  Bonds. 

Descriptive  Catalogue  of  Road  Models. 
Sand-Clay  and  Burnt-Clay  Roads. 
Macadam  Roads. 

Public  Road  Mileage  and  Revenues  in 
the  Southern  States. 
Earth,  Sand-Clay,  and  Gravel  Roads. 
Benefits  of  Improved  Roads. 
The  Road  Drag. 

Drainage    Methods   and   Foundations 
for  Country  Roads. 


72, 


220, 

3ii. 
338. 
387. 

463, 
505. 
597, 
724, 


CHAPTER  XII 

The  Public  School  and  the  Health  of  the 
Community 

i.  Country  Children  Are  Less  Healthy  Than 
City  Children.* — Statistics  on  the  health  of  school 
children  show  that  country  children  are  more  de- 
fective than  city  children.  It  was  found  in  183 1 
rural  districts  in  Pennsylvania  that  75  per  cent,  of 
the  pupils  were  defective,  as  compared  with  72  per 
cent,  for  287.499  children  in  the  schools  of  New 
York  City.  Upon  investigation  it  has  been  found 
that  heart  trouble  is  twice  as  prevalent  among 
country  children  as  among  city  children,  and  spinal 
curvature  twenty-seven  times  as  prevalent.  There 
are  many  more  cases  of  malnutrition  in  the  country 
than  in  the  city.  Further  comparisons  of  the  health 
of  rural  and  urban  children  are  as  follows :  mental 
defectives  in  rural  districts,  8  per  cent.,  in  urban 
districts  2  per  cent. ;  ear  trouble  among  country  chil- 
dren 5  per  cent.,  among  city  children  1  per  cent. : 
country  children  suffering  from  defective  eyes  21.8 


*These  comparative  statistics  are  quoted  from  Dr.  Philip  Sumner 
Spence  of  Teacher's  College,  New  York  City,  in  Public  Health,  Sep- 
tember, 1915,  published  by  the  Michigan  State  Board  of  Health, 
Lansing,   Mich. 

193 


194    THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

per  cent.,  city  children  5.1  per  cent. ;  adenoids  among 
country  children  21.5  per  cent.,  among  city  children 
8.5  per  cent. ;  enlarged  tonsils  among  country  chil- 
dren 30  per  cent.,  among  city  children  8.8  per  cent. 

In  19 1 5,  at  the  instance  of  State  Superintendent 
J.  D.  Eggleston,  a  sanitary  survey  was  made  for  the 
white  and  colored  schools  of  Orange  County,  Vir- 
ginia. The  results  were  later  published  by  the 
United  States  Bureau  of  Education,  Bulletin  1914, 
No.  17.  The  most  striking  findings  are  as  follows: 
27  per  cent,  of  the  white  pupils  and  23  per  cent,  of 
the  colored  pupils  examined  in  the  one-teacher 
schools  had  defective  eyesight,  while  the  eyes  of 
only  17  per  cent,  in  the  graded  school  were  found  to 
be  defective.  In  the  one-room  schools  31.2  per  cent, 
showed  evidences  of  malnutrition ;  67  per  cent,  of 
the  boys  and  32  per  cent,  of  the  girls  were  anemic. 
As  to  hook-worm,  35.6  per  cent,  in  the  one-room 
white  schools,  19.5  per  cent,  in  the  rural  colored 
schools,  and  14.5  per  cent,  in  the  graded  schools 
were  infected.  Other  findings  were  as  follows :  de- 
fective permanent  teeth,  58  per  cent. ;  defective  tem- 
porary teeth,  42  per  cent.;  defective  hearing,  7.5 
per  cent. ;  adenoids,  34.7  per  cent. ;  deviated  septums, 
31  per  cent. 

People  in  the  country  live  in  poorer  houses  and 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL    I95 

eat  food  that  is  poorer  in  variety  and  quality  than 
city  people  do.  Many  country  men  never  saw  a  good 
wholesome  biscuit  in  their  lives,  but  the  baker's  loaf 
is  known  to  city  dwellers  of  all  ranks.  Malnutrition 
stalks  like  a  monster  among  children  of  the  less  pro- 
vident families  of  the  country.  And  the  homes  of 
poor  people  in  the  country  are  more  squalid  than 
those  occupied  by  people  of  the  same  degree  of  pov- 
erty in  the  cities.  They  are  not  furnished  so  well, 
and  the  heating  and  ventilating  are  more  detrimental 
to  the  health  of  the  occupants.  We  have  rural  slums 
with  living  conditions  every  bit  as  intolerable  as 
those  of  the  vilest  urban  slums.  And  the  children 
from  these  unclean  homes  often  attend  schools 
equally  as  unclean  and  ill-furnished.  Wet  feet,  cold 
bodies,  foul  atmosphere,  seats  made  for  grown 
people,  and  lunches  that  are  cold,  clammy  and  indi- 
gestible, contribute  their  parts  to  the  high  percentage 
of  ill  health  and  physical  deformities  found  among 
country  children. 

The  human  organism  requires  intelligent  care.  If 
the  purpose  of  the  free  school  is  to  teach  the  rural 
and  urban  masses  the  art  of  complete  living,  health 
instruction  is  one  of  its  elemental  functions.  The 
medical  inspector  and  the  public  health  nurse  must 
be  aligned  more  closely  with  the  public  schools. 


I96    THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

2.  Small  Physical  Defects  Prevent  Many  Chil- 
dren from  Passing  Their  Grades. — In  a  city  of  nine 
thousand  population  a  physical  examination  was 
made  of  all  the  pupils  who  failed  to  pass  their 
grades  the  year  before.  It  was  found  that  some  of 
them  failed  to  pass  because  their  mouths  were  full  of 
carious  teeth  that  so  befouled  their  breath,  deranged 
their  digestion  and  poisoned  their  system  that  nor- 
mal mental  action  was  impossible.  Quite  a  number 
failed  because  of  dull  headaches  occasioned  by  eye- 
strains that  could  have  been  easily  relieved  by  lenses 
from  a  competent  oculist;  others  failed  because  of 
defective  ears  that  prevented  them  from  hearing  and 
understanding  much  of  the  instruction  their  teachers 
gave ;  constant  annoyances  from  nasal  passages 
clogged  with  growths  of  adenoids  caused  the  failures 
of  some ;  and  diseased  tonsils  and  malnutrition  pre- 
vented many  others  from  making  their  grades. 

One  interesting  case  was  that  of  a  large,  inert, 
fourteen-year-old  boy  who  had  been  in  the  fifth 
grade  for  three  years.  Upon  examination  it  was 
found  that  his  eyesight  was  good,  his  hearing  was 
perfect,  his  teeth  were  sound,  his  nasal  passages  free 
from  adenoids,  and  his  tonsils  healthy.  But  inquir- 
ies directed  to  the  quality  and  variety  of  food  upon 
which  he  subsisted  revealed  the  fact  that  his  large 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL    I97 

soft  body  was  underfed.  He  lived  almost  entirely 
on  a  diet  of  bread  and  sirup.  His  muscles  and 
nerves  did  not  get  the  protein  and  other  food  ele- 
ments necessary  to  make  them  vigorous  and  healthy- 
It  was  physically  impossible  for  his  half-starved 
brain  and  nerves  to  do  accurate,  straight  thinking. 

3.  Better  Food  for  Farm  People  and  Farm 
Animals. — A  low  grade  of  gasoline  provokes  engine 
trouble.  The  working  efficiency  of  an  engine  can 
be  no  higher  than  the  quality  of  fuel  used.  The 
same  is  true  of  the  human  body.  Poor  food  makes 
all  its  movements  labored  and  heavy.  Food  that  is 
low  in  quality  and  poor  in  variety  leaves  the  body 
weakened  and  susceptible  to  disease. 

Good  food  and  plenty  of  it  is  wise  economy.  A 
balanced  ration  of  palatable  food  not  only  gives 
physical  comfort  and  bodily  efficiency,  but  it  is  often 
less  expensive  than  the  unbalanced  menus  on  which, 
some  poor  families  subsist.  For  example,  a  transient 
family  of  seven  members  on  the  streets  of  a  Texas 
town  was  engaged  by  a  thrifty  farmer  to  pick  cot- 
ton through  the  fall  months  of  1912.  The  farmer 
paid  their  grocery  bills  for  ninety-two  days  while 
they  worked  for  him.  They  lived  on  coffee,  wheat 
flour,  sirup,  and  the  fattest  sort  of  cheap  bacon. 
The  father  and   mother  of  this  poor  family  were 


I98    THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

urged  to  get  a  better  variety  of  food  for  their  pale- 
faced  children.  But  they  insisted  that  they  were 
poor  people,  unaccustomed  to  luxuries,  and  could 
make  out  on  what  they  had.  So  each  order  of  gro- 
ceries was  a  duplicate  of  the  previous  one  calling 
for  more  coffee,  flour,  sirup  and  fat  bacon.  These 
people  were  not  extravagant  or  wasteful.  They 
thought  they  were  living  economically.  But  at  the 
end  of  ninety-two  days  their  landlord  discovered 
that  this  slim  variety  of  food  had  cost  them  more 
per  individual  than  it  had  cost  him  to  feed  his  own 
family  on  a  well-balanced  ration  during  the  same 
time. 

An  unbalanced  ration  is  both  unhealthy  and 
uneconomical.  This  is  as  true  for  the  farmer's 
live  stock  as  for  his  family.  Many  a  farmer  feeds  a 
dollar's  worth  of  feed  and  gets  back  only  ninety 
cents'  worth  of  live  weight  because  the  ration  lacks 
balance  and  variety.  Flocks  of  hens  are  given 
nothing  but  fat-producing  feed  when  eggs  are  the 
product  desired.  Stock  cattle  are  fed  some  high- 
priced  concentrate  with  insufficient  roughage  to  go 
with  it.  Then  the  hens  are  blamed  for  not  laying 
eggs  and  the  cattle  are  disposed  of  at  a  loss,  while 
the  farmer  complains  at  his  "hard  luck." 

The  chapters  on  dietetics  in  our  physiologies  are 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL    199 

usually  passed  over  lightly.  But  some  teachers  are 
seizing  upon  them  as  practical  opportunities  for  im- 
pressing the  need  for  better  rations  for  the  family 
and  the  farm  animals.  In  one  community  a  flock  of 
pure-bred  hens  was  laying  no  eggs.  A  school-boy 
asked  for  a  sample  of  the  feed  they  were  getting. 
He  found  it  consisted  of  a  mixture  of  crushed  Indian 
corn,  feterita,  and  milo  maize — all  fat-producing 
grains.  Then  he  remarked,  "It  is  impossible  for 
these  hens  to  lay  eggs  when  they  are  not  getting 
the  feed  eggs  are  made  out  of."  This  boy  had  not 
had  a  regular  course  in  poultry  feeding.  He  had 
merely  received  a  few  well-taught  lessons  in  the 
physiology  class.  A  few  simple  lessons  in  the  feed- 
ing of  poultry  and  farm  animals  had  come  to  him 
as  a  practical  corollary  to  the  chapter  on  human 
dietetics.  "There  is  more  physiology  and  hygiene  in 
the  feeding  and  care  and  management  of  live  stock 
and  poultry  than  in  the  text-books,  and  it  is 
physiology  and  hygiene  in  which  all  the  family,  and 
the  family's  income,  are  concerned." 

4.  Teaching  School  Children  the  Benefits  of 
Ventilation,  Deep  Breathing,  and  Outdoor  Sleeping. 
— Fresh  air  is  a  great  nerve  tonic.  Outdoor  sleeping 
has  become  popular  during  recent  years.  No  mod- 
ern home  in  the  South  is  complete  without  a  sleeping 


200    THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

porch.  All  the  living-rooms  are  planned  to  have  a 
sufficiency  of  light  and  air.  People  are  learning 
that  sunlight  and  fresh  air  are  essential  to  the 
health  of  their  bodies. 

But  many  families  still  live  and  sleep  behind 
closed  doors  and  lowered  windows.  Children  who 
would  not  dare  eat  with  unwashed  hands  or 
unwashed  knives  and  forks  will  breathe  and  re- 
breathe  unclean  air  that  has  been  inhaled  and 
exhaled  dozens  of  times  by  themselves  and  the  other 
members  of  the  household.  And  the  atmosphere 
of  the  crowded  living-room  is  further  befouled  by 
the  stupefying  gases  from  a  kerosene  lamp  for  sev- 
eral hours  before  bedtime. 

Carbon  dioxide  is  always  present  in  exhaled  air. 
It  is  a  colorless,  odorless  gas.  Its  perception  is  be- 
yond the  reach  of  the  natural  senses.  This  makes 
it  elusive  and  all  the  more  dangerous.  If  it  were 
visible  or  offensive  in  smell,  its  presence  would  be 
easier  to  detect.  One  of  tne  simplest  ways  of  re- 
vealing its  presence  is  by  the  lime-water  test.  Put 
a  handful  of  slacked  lime  into  a  quart  of  water  and 
allow  it  to  stand  over  night.  The  lime  will  settle  to 
the  bottom.  Draw  off  the  clear  water  standing 
above  the  lime  into  another  vessel,  being  very  care- 
ful not  to  stir  up  the  lime  from  beneath.    Fill  a  test- 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL    201 

tube  to  a  depth  of  one  inch  with  the  clear  lime 
water,  and  with  a  quill  or  a  glass  tube  bubble  the 
breath  through  it  for  one-half  minute.  The  white 
precipitate  forming  the  milky  color  indicates  the 
presence  of  carbon  dioxide.  The  visible  evidence 
thus  deduced  will  impress  pupils  how  very  unclean 
it  is  to  breathe  after  one  another.  This  one  simple 
demonstration  will  force  more  windows  and  doors 
open  in  the  sleeping-rooms  back  at  home  than  a 
whole  week  of  lecturing  and  moralizing  on  the  bene- 
fits of  fresh  air. 

While  teaching  a  country  school  ten  years  ago,  I 
improvised  a  spirometer  to  test  the  lung  capacities 
of  some  of  the  pupils.  It  was  done  in  this  simple 
and  inexpensive  way :  a  two-gallon  bottle  was  filled 
with  water  and  inverted  into  a  large  basin  contain- 
ing about  one  inch  of  water  in  the  bottom  of  it. 
The  end  of  a  piece  of  rubber  tubing  was  inserted 
well  up  into  the  neck  of  the  inverted  bottle  of  water. 
Then  the  pupil  whose  lung  capacity  was  to  be 
measured  would  inhale  all  the  air  his  lungs  would 
hold  and  blow  into  the  free  end  of  the  rubber  tube 
till  his  breath  was  exhausted.  This  would  force 
part  of  the  water  out  of  the  bottle,  replacing  it  with 
air  from  the  lungs.  The  volume  of  the  air  above  the 
water   remaining  in  the  inverted  bottle  represents 


202    THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

the  capacity  of  the  pupil's  lungs.  Gradings  on  the 
outside  of  the  bottle  give  the  amount  in  cubic  inches. 
Each  pupil's  lung  capacity  was  tested  every  month 
and  a  record  kept  of  it.  These  simple  exercises 
did  more  to  establish  habits  of  deep  breathing  and  to 
impress  the  need  for  an  abundance  of  fresh  air  at 
all  times  than  I  ever  could  have  accomplished 
through  admonitions  and  explanations  by  word  of 
mouth. 

5.  Screens  for  Country  Schoolhouses  and 
Country  Homes. — A  modern  one-room  schoolhouse 
was  built  near  a  malarial  swamp.  It  was  neat  and 
attractive.  It  met  all  the  scientific  specifications  as 
to  lighting,  heating  and  furniture.  But  the  building 
contract  failed  to  provide  for  screens.  School 
opened  in  October.  The  children's  bare  feet  and 
ankles  were  exposed  to  mosquitoes  all  day.  It  was 
impossible  for  them  to  study  in  the  midst  of  such 
annoyances.  The  teacher  applied  to  the  school 
board  for  screen  wire  with  meshes  sufficiently  close 
to  keep  out  the  smallest  mosquitoes.  The  request 
was  granted,  and  the  windows  and  doors  were 
screened  on  Saturday  of  the  first  week  of  school. 
Then  the  teacher  closed  the  house  tightly  and  fumi- 
gated it  with  sulphur  candles  till  Monday  morning. 
By  that  time  every  vestige  of  insect  life  in  it  had 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL    203 

been  destroyed.  All  the  pupils  carried  reports  of  the 
improved  conditions  back  home.  They  were  encour- 
aged by  the  teacher  to  insist  that  their  parents  screen 
their  homes :  windows,  doors  and  chimney  flues. 
Later  in  the  year  a  stereopticon  lecture  was  given 
by  the  teacher  on  the  dangers  of  the  mosquito.  By 
the  following  June  nine  houses  in  the  school  dis- 
trict had  been  screened.  Besides  that,  cans  of  drip- 
ping oil  over  pools  of  standing  water  had  destroyed 
many  of  the  best  breeding-places. 

The  business  men  in  one  of  the  malarial  sections 
of  Texas  put  on  an  anti-mosquito  campaign.  It 
created  a  great  demand  for  screen  wire.  The  slogan 
of  "Screens  for  Every  Home"  brought  on  a  con- 
certed war  against  mosquitoes  in  the  town  and  sur- 
rounding country.  Five  years  later  a  local  druggist 
took  a  visitor  in  the  town  back  behind  the  prescrip- 
tion case  and  showed  him  a  large  quantity  of  anti- 
malarial remedies  that  had  been  dead  stock  on  his 
shelves  since  the  houses  were  made  proof  against 
the  mosquitoes. 

"In  four  towns  in  Arkansas  anti-mosquito  meas- 
ures were  carried  out  with  marked  success.  By  the 
draining  of  foul  pools,  by  ditching  sluggish  streams, 
and  by  oiling  surface  water  which  could  not  be 
otherwise  dealt  with,  the  breeding  of  anopheles  mos- 
quitoes was  almost  entirely  prevented.     The  results, 


204    THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

as  tested  by  the  number  of  calls  made  by  physicians 
on  persons  suffering  from  the  disease,  were  strik- 
ing. In  Hamburg,  Arkansas,  the  number  of  calls 
fell  from  2312  in  1916,  to  259  in  1917,  and  to  59  in 
1918,  a  reduction  of  97.4  per  cent,  for  the  period. 
The  per  capita  cost  for  1917  was  $1.45;  for  1918  it 
was  only  44  cents.  It  is  cheaper  to  get  rid  of  malaria 
than  it  is  to  have  it."* 

In  an  area  badly  infested  with  mosquitoes  every 
white  home  in  a  village  of  six  hundred  was  tightly 
screened.  Health  education  at  school,  in  cooperation 
with  the  local  doctors,  did  it.  At  a  community  picnic 
one  day,  before  all  the  homes  were  screened,  the 
teachers  put  the  children  from  the  screened  homes 
in  one  group  and  those  from  the  unscreened  homes 
in  another.  The  two  groups  of  children  looked  as  if 
they  might  have  come  from  two  different  worlds. 
In  fact,  the}-  did.  One  group  came  from  the  unpro- 
tected land  of  disease-breeding  insects;  the  other 
from  homes  that  were  proof  against  them.  One 
group  was  robust  and  rosy ;  the  other  was  wan  and 
sallow.  The  object  lesson  was  too  striking  not  to  be 
heeded.  It  called  for  screens  for  all  the  homes  that 
did  not  have  them. 

Upon  a  motion  by  a  philanthropic  person  a 
fly-trapping    and    house-screening    campaign    was 


*George     E.     Vincent,     Rockefeller     Foundation     Review     for     1918, 
pages    11-12. 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL    205 

launched  in  a  West-Texas  village.     The  schoolboys 
were   taught   to   make    fly-traps   and   a    bounty   of 
ten  cents  per  quart  was  offered  for  all  the  flies  cap- 
tured.   In  the  course  of  forty  days,  one  hundred  and 
nine  quarts  of  flies  were  destroyed,   and  bounties 
were  paid  to  the  amount  of  ten  dollars  and  ninety 
cents  for  their  dead  bodies.     But  still  there  was  no 
appreciable  decrease  in  the  fly  population  of  the  vil- 
lage.    Flies  were  everywhere.     They  were  in  great 
swarms.     If  there  was  any  difference,  they   were 
more  numerous  than  at  the  beginning  of  the  cam- 
paign to  exterminate  them.    It  was  puzzling  to  some 
of  the  people.    The  teacher  and  a  local  doctor  called 
public  attention  to  the  fact  that  no  effort  was  being 
made  to  destroy  the  flies'   breeding-places.     They 
were  multiplying  by  the  tens  of  thousands  every  day. 
Dirty  stables,  filthy  outhouses,  garbage  heaps,  ma- 
nure piles,   and   some  half-decayed   strawstacks   in 
the  neighborhood   were   literally   teaming  with   fly 
larvae.    The  strawstacks  were  burned,  dirty  stables 
cleaned  out,  outhouses  cleaned  and  disinfected,  and 
other  breeding-places  destroyed.   In  a  few  weeks  the 
community  was  about  free  from  its  pest  of  flies.  To 
try  to  kill  out  flies  without  destroying  their  breed- 
ing-places is  like  trying  to  sweep  water  out  of  a 
room  while  an  open  hydrant  is  running  on  the  floor. 


206    THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

When  such  work  as  killing  out  flies  and  mos- 
quitoes and  screening  homes  against  them  is  cham- 
pioned by  the  teacher,  it  increases  the  community's 
respect  and  appreciation  for  him.  Patrons  and  pupils 
look  upon  him  as  a  friend  genuinely  sympathetic  and 
true.  It  gives  the  teacher  and  the  school  a  new 
prestige  among  them.  They  will  support  the  school 
with  loyalty  and  devotion  because  of  its  immediate 
worth  to  the  basic  comforts  of  life. 

6.  Bath  Tubs  and  Sanitary  Outhouses  for 
Country  Homes. — The  scarcity  of  bath  tubs  in  coun- 
try communities  is  not  always  due  to  inability  to 
afford  them.  The  homes  of  many  prosperous 
farmers  have  no  such  conveniences.  The  creek  for 
the  summer  and  the  wash-basin  for  the  winter  are 
their  only  bathing  facilities.  And  many  times  even 
these  are  not  used  as  much  as  they  should  be. 

In  a  wealthy  agricultural  community  a  teacher 
induced  a  farmer  to  put  in  a  new  porcelain  bath  tub. 
An  illustrated  lecture  was  given  on  "Bathing  Facili- 
ties and  Kitchen  Conveniences  for  Country  Homes.'" 
This  was  followed  by  lessons  at  school  on  "The 
Value  of  the  Bath  Tub"  and  "The  Meaning  of 
Cleanliness."  At  the  end  of  two  years  fourteen 
homes  had  bath  tubs.  Most  of  them  were  equipped 
for  hot  and  cold  water.    These  homes  had  been  able 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL    20J 

to  afford  them  for  many  years,  but  had  given  them 
no  attention  till  the  teacher  called  attention  to  them. 

A  fly-proof,  sanitary  toilet  with  a  cement  floor 
was  observed  at  a  country  home.  It  was  an  exact 
copy  of  the  one  at  school.  The  proprietor  of  the 
home  said :  "Yes,  that  boy  of  mine  thought  the  one 
at  the  schoolhouse  was  a  good  thing.  Then  he  and 
I  built  this  one."  Now  there  are  seven  others  just 
like  it  in  use  at  the  country  homes  in  that  district. 
They  represent  emulations  of  the  example  set  by  the 
school. 

7.  Lessons  in  Cleanliness. — At  one  home  the 
face  towel  was  hanging  on  the  inverted  broom  with 
the  wind  flapping  one  of  its  soiled  corners  into  the 
bucket  of  drinking  water  near  it.  The  towel  was 
absorbing  all  sorts  of  filth  and  disease  the  polluted 
broom  had  picked  up  from  the  unclean  floor.  All 
the  members  of  the  family  dried  their  faces  on  it. 
After  dinner  the  father  plucked  a  straw  from  the 
broom  and  used  it  for  a  tooth-pick.  At  another 
home  the  dishrag  was  sopping  and  sour.  No  member 
of  the  family  would  have  dared  bring  it  in  contact 
with  his  bare  lips.  Yet  they  all  ate  out  of  plates 
and  with  knives  and  forks  over  which  its  filth  had 
been  spread.  Flies  came  in  through  the  open  win- 
dows   from    the   outhouses,    pig-pens   and    manure 


208    THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

piles  and  walked  on  the  food  they  ate.  Blinky,  flat- 
tasting  milk  was  served  from  a  vessel  that  had  not 
had  its  inside  seams  and  crevices  thoroughly  cleaned 
and  sterilized  with  scalding  water  and  direct  sun- 
light for  a  long  while.  A  common  butter  dish  with 
no  butter  knife  was  a  place  where  small  bits  of  saliva 
were  exchanged  from  one  mouth  to  another  as  the 
butter  was  cut  with  individual  knives.  There  was 
no  spoon  in  the  meat  dish  and  none  in  the  large 
bowl  of  stewed  fruit.  Individual  forks  were  taken 
directly  from  the  mouths  of  those  about  the  table 
and  used  in  helping  their  plates.  These  are  just  a 
few  of  the  examples  of  uncleanliness  that  a  lady 
teacher  who  taught  with  me  in  a  village  school  a 
few  years  ago  used  in  emphasizing  the  lessons  of 
sanitation  in  her  physiology  class. 

In  that  school  we  had  as  little  laboratory  equip- 
ment as  schools  of  four  teachers  ordinarily  have, 
which  means  practically  none  at  all.  But  my  able 
assistant  was  an  artist  in  improvising  simple  experi- 
ments and  impressive  demonstrations.  Here  is  the 
way  in  which  I  observed  her  simplify  the  chapter  of 
the  physiology  text  on  bacteria  and  communicable 
diseases  in  a  period  of  five  days.  A  potato  was  boiled 
in  a  clean  tomato  can  on  top  of  the  school  stove. 
Then    it   was   sliced    into   four  pieces   with   a   knife 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL    200, 

blade  thoroughly  sterilized  in  an  alcohol  flame  in  the 
presence  of  the  pupils.  Each  slice  was  put  on  a 
saucer  that  had  been  sterilized  in  boiling  water. 
Then  one  of  the  slices  was  inoculated  by  a  boy's 
touching  his  dirty  fingers  to  it  for  a  few  seconds ; 
another  one  by  bringing  it  in  contact  with  the  school- 
room floor;  the  third  one  by  making  two  dim 
scratches  across  it  with  a  pin  dipped  into  stagnant 
water  containing  some  partly  decayed  hay ;  and  the 
fourth  one  was  not  inoculated  at  all.  Then  they 
were  covered  with  inverted  glass  tumblers  to  ex- 
clude the  dust  and  bacteria  from  the  outside  air 
and  set  away  on  a  dark  shelf  for  four  days. 

At  the  end  of  four  days  they  were  brought  be- 
fore the  class  again.  In  the  meantime  the  teacher 
had  explained  how  very  small  spores  and  disease 
germs  are.  She  explained  that  they  multiply  very 
rapidly  and  that  each  parent  spore  on  the  inoculated 
potato  would  have  a  large  family  in  a  few  days. 
The  individual  spores  and  germs  were  too  small  to 
see,  but  the  whole  families,  or  colonies,  growing  from 
them  were  perfectly  visible.  When  the  cultures 
were  brought  before  the  class  and  uncovered,  the 
one  inoculated  by  the  boy's  dirty  fingers  showed 
thirteen  colonies;  the  one  brought  in  contact  with 
the   floor,   nine  colonies ;  the  one  inoculated    from 


2IO    THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

the  hay  infusion  was  bristling  with  mildew;  and 
the  one  not  inoculated  at  all  was  still  clean  and 
fleecy  white.  The  teacher  had  proved  that  the  boy's 
fingers  were  dirtier  than  the  school-room  floor.  She 
gave  those  pupils  a  practical  glimpse  deep  down  into 
the  world  of  diatoms  away  out  there  in  a  village 
school  without  the  aid  of  a  high-priced  microscope. 
These  simple,  forceful  lessons  were  very  visibly  re- 
flected in  their  habits  and  practises  of  cleanliness 
in  school  and  at  home. 

Some  teachers  teach  to  get  practical  results. 
Their  purpose  is  to  improve  the  pupils'  habits  of 
thinking  and  living.  They  are  real  teachers.  Others 
are  nothing  more  than  cheap  conventional  drill- 
masters  preparing  pupils  for  but  little  else  than  to 
pass  to  the  grade  next  above.  Just  how  ridiculous 
the  average  stereotyped  free  school  of  to-day  will  be 
in  the  eyes  of  the  historian  one  hundred  years  hence, 
I  should  like  to  know. 

THOUGHT  QUESTIONS 

1.  Account  for  the  health  of  city  children  being 
better  than  the  health  of  country  children.  Give  a 
summary  of  the  findings  of  the  health  survey  among 
the  rural  schools  of  Orange  County,  Virginia. 

2.  Has  the  health  of  your  pupils  been  inspected  by 
a  competent  physician  this  year?     Are  any  of  them 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL    211 

suffering  from  adenoids,  carious  teeth,  or  diseased 
tonsils?  Have  you  procured  a  set  of  Snellen's  cards 
from  an  oculist  and  tested  the  eyesight  of  all  your  pu- 
pils? Have  you  prevailed  on  the  parents  of  the  de- 
fective children  in  your  school  to  have  them  given 
medical  treatment?  Does  your  county  have  a  public 
health  nurse? 

3.  Why  is  a  ration  that  is  unwholesome  and  in- 
complete sometimes  more  expensive  than  a  ration  that 
is  palatable  and  well-balanced?  What  are  some  of  the 
physical  evidences  of  malnutrition  among  children? 
Show  how  farmers  sometimes  lose  money  by  feeding 
their  live  stock  incomplete  rations.  Can  you  give  a 
formula  for  a  balanced  ration  for  a  flock  of  laying 
hens?  What  is  some  of  the  most  economical  poultry 
feed  produced  in  the  locality  where  you  reside  ? 

4.  Have  you  any  pupils  who  are  flat-chested  and 
weakly?  Have  you  made  a  spirometer  as  outlined  in 
this  chapter  and  tested  the  capacities  of  their  lungs? 
Have  you  performed  the  lime-water  test  for  carbon 
dioxide  in  the  presence  of  your  physiology  class? 

5.  What  per  cent,  of  the  homes  in  your  school  dis- 
trict have  screens?  Why  is  it  so  necessary  to  screen 
chimney  flues  during  the  summer  months  in  malarial 
districts?  (Screen  against  anopheles  mosquitoes  with 
No.  16  screen  wire ;  i.  e.,  screens  with  sixteen  wires  to 
the  inch.)  Mosquitoes  incubate  in  water.  They  like 
sluggish,  standing  water  best.  Are  there  any  such 
breeding-places  for  mosquitoes  near  your  school  or 
near  any  of  the  homes  from  which  your  pupils  come? 
If  so,  could  any  of  them  be  successfully  drained  ?  Ar- 
tificial ponds  for  stock  water  sometimes  get  infested 
with  "wiggletails."    They  can  be  killed  out  by  placing 


212    THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

cans  of  dripping  oil  so  the  oil  will  spread  over  the 
surface  of  the  water.  (Crude  petroleum  is  the  least 
expensive  oil  to  use  for  that  purpose.)  Why  is  trap- 
ping flies  of  little  use  unless  their  breeding-places  are 
destroyed?  Name  all  the  places  you  can  where  flies 
breed. 

6.  Do  all  the  well-to-do  farmers  where  you  teach 
have  bath  tubs  in  their  homes?  If  not,  why  not?  Are 
the  toilets  at  your  school  fly-proof  and  sanitary? 

7.  Have  you  ever  seen  people  eat  food  out  of  plates 
that  were  washed  with  sour  dishrags?  Is  it  possible 
for  disease  to  be  communicated  from  mouth  to  mouth 
through  the  medium  of  a  common  butter  dish  that  has 
no  knife  in  it?  Do  you  ever  give  your  pupils  lessons 
on  good  table  manners?  What  are  some  of  the  de- 
vices you  have  used  for  impressing  the  lessons  of  home 
sanitation  and  personal  cleanliness  this  year? 

REFERENCES 

Broadhurst,  Home  and  Community  Hygiene,  Lippin- 
cott  Company,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

Lowry,  The  Home  Nurse,  Forbes  and  Company, 
Chicago,  111. 

MacNutt,  Manual  for  Health  Officers,  John  Wiley 
and  Sons,  New  York. 

Crissey.  The  Story  of  Foods,  Rand  McNally  and 
Company,  Chicago,  111. 

Ehlers  and  Lennert,  Rural  Home  Sanitation,  Bul- 
letin of  the  Texas  State  Board  of  Health,  Austin,  Tex. 

Ehlers,  A  Sanitary  Toilet  Suitable  for  Rural  Dis- 
tricts and  How  to  Build  It,  Texas  State  Board  of 
Health,  Austin,  Texas. 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL    213 

U.  S.  Public  Health  Bulletins,  Bureau  of  Public 
Health,  Treasury  Department,  Washington,  D.  C. 

Some  Aspects  of  Malarial  Control  through  Mos- 
quito Eradication,  by  C.  W.  Metz.  (Reprint  Public 
Health  Reports,  No.  500,  Jan.  31,  1920.) 

Is  Your  Community  Fit?  (Reprint  from  Public 
Health  Reports,  No.  517,  Apr.  25,  1919.) 

The  Road  to  Health.     (Keep  Well  Series  No.  i.) 

Adenoids.     (Keep  Well  Series  No.  2.) 

How  to  Avoid  Tuberculosis.  (Keep  Well  Series, 
No.  3.) 

Uncle  Sam's  Guide  to  Health.  A  selected  list  of 
popular  health  articles.  (Miscellaneous  publications 
No.  20.) 

Mental  Hygiene  Leaflets  for  Teachers.  (Reprint 
for  Public  Health  Reports,  No.  518,  Apr.  25,  1919.) 

A  High-School  Course  in  Physiology  in  Which  the 
Facts  of  Sex  Are  Taught.     (V.  D.  Bulletin  No.  50.) 

Some  Observations  on  Mental  Defectiveness  and 
Mental  Retardation,  by  Walter  L.  Treadwell.  (Re- 
print from  Public  Health  Reports,  No.  514,  Apr.  11, 
1919.) 


CHAPTER   XIII 
The  Rural  School  Museum 

i.  How  the  Material  for  a  Museum  Was  Col- 
lected by  a  Country  Teacher. — One  Monday  morn- 
ing a  teacher  brought  before  her  room  a  very 
pleasing  curio.  She  held  it  up  in  plain  view  of  the 
children  and  told  them  an  interesting  story  about 
it.  Then  she  said :  "Children,  we  are  going  to  make 
this  curio  week.  A  valuable  curio  can  be  found 
in  almost  every  home.  We  can  make  good  use  of 
these  curios  in  our  work  at  school.  I  want  you  to 
collect  as  many  of  them  as  you  can  and  bring  them 
to  me.  Do  not  bring  them  to-morrow.  But  to- 
morrow each  of  you  may  tell  what  you  think  you 
can  bring." 

On  Tuesday  morning  the  teacher  exhibited 
another  curio  to  the  room,  gave  its  history  and 
heard  short  reports  from  several  pupils  on  what 
they  could  contribute  to  the  curio  collection.  The 
morning  exercises  were  occupied  in  a  similar  way 
Wednesday  and  Thursday.  Thursday  morning 
she  announced  that  the  curios  collected  during  the 
week   might    be   brought  to   school   the   next   day. 

214 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL    21 5 

The  following  is  a  partial  list  of  what  appeared  at 
the  teacher's  desk  on  Friday  morning:  two  swords 
that  saw  service  in  the  Civil  War ;  one  bayonet ;  one 
Bowie  knife;  an  Indian  scalp;  one  small  vase 
from  Palestine;  quite  a  collection  of  sea  shells; 
shark's  teeth,  and  other  marine  specimens ;  a  human 
skull ;  some  Indian  crockery ;  and  quite  a  number  of 
flint  arrowheads  and  spearheads.  In  fact,  the 
teacher  said :  "My  desk  was  simply  buried  with  in- 
teresting relics.  You  could  not  have  carried  them 
away  in  a  wheelbarrow  at  one  full  load.  My  next 
task  was  to  classify  the  material  and  put  it  away 
on  the  shelves.  And  it  taught  me  this  lesson :  Not 
to  allow  any  pupil  to  bring  more  than  two  speci- 
mens in  any  one  week  while  we  were  making  the 
rest  of  our  collection." 

The  next  week  was  fossil  week.  On  Monday 
morning  the  teacher  brought  before  the  room  a 
petrified  shell  found  on  a  hillside  near  the  school- 
house  and  told  what  it  was  and  how  it  came  to  be 
there.  On  Tuesday  morning  she  exhibited  some 
petrified  shark's  teeth  found  in  the  same  locality. 
The  following  Friday  morning  there  were  brought 
to  the  teacher's  desk :  one  mammoth's  tooth ;  numer- 
ous petrified  marine  shells ;  specimens  of  petrified 
wood ;  bits  of  bituminous  coal,  anthracite  coal  and 


2l6    THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

lignite;  shales  from  a  coal  mine  sixty  miles  away 
beautifully  imprinted  with  fern  leaves  that  grew 
many  thousands  of  years  ago;  and  some  pieces  of 
bog  iron-ore  bearing  clear  outlines  of  the  leaves  of 
forest  trees  that  flourished  when  Earth  was  much 
younger  than  it  is  to-day. 

The  third  week  was  insect  week.  The  teacher 
brought  two  insects  before  the  class — a  Colorado 
potato  beetle  and  a  monarch  butterfly.  She  took 
ten  minutes  to  tell  of  the  habits  and  life-history  of 
each.  Then  she  immersed  them  in  a  small  quantity 
of  gasoline,  explaining  that  she  used  this  method  of 
killing  them  to  avoid  mutilating  and  disfiguring 
their  bodies.  Next  she  mounted  them  on  pieces  of 
cardboard  she  had  brought  for  that  purpose  and  set 
them  away  to  dry.  On  the  following  Friday  morn- 
ing more  than  fifty  mounted  specimens  were 
brought  to  her  desk.  Four  cigar  boxes  were 
required  to  accommodate  them.  Some  moth  balls 
were  placed  in  each  box  to  keep  the  parasites  away, 
and  they  were  put  on  the  museum  shelves  to  become 
part  of  the  permanent  equipment  of  the  school. 

In  like  manner,  one  week  was  devoted  to  collect- 
ing and  mounting  native  wild  flowers;  another  to 
the  seeds  of  harmful  weeds ;  and  a  week  each  to 
native  wild  grasses,  wild  fruits  and  nuts,  the  leaves 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL    21J 

and  stems  of  domesticated  plants,  and  the  different 
field  crops  in  the  neighborhood. 

2.  The  Use  of  the  Museum. — In  commenting 
on  her  school  equipment  the  teacher  said :  "I  could 
hardly  get  along  without  the  museum.  It  helps 
me  simplify  so  many  of  the  lessons  called  for  in  the 
course  of  study.  This  is  especially!  true  with  the 
subjects  of  physical  geography,  physiology,  nature 
study  and  English  composition.  Both  in  assigning 
lessons  and  in  teaching  them,  concrete  material 
from  the  shelves  of  the  museum  is  of  invaluable 
assistance  in  making  them  interesting  and  attrac- 
tive. When  I  want  an  original  English  composition, 
I  go  to  the  museum,  select  my  subject,  hold  it  up 
before  my  pupils,  and  familiarize  them  with  it. 
Then  they  are  not  at  a  loss  for  something  to  write 
about." 

Just  a  few  miles  from  this  place  was  another 
school  taught  by  a  very  pretty  girl  whom,  for  con- 
venience, we  shall  call  Catherine.  I  had  visited  her 
school  and  given  her  pupils  the  same  tests  in  arith- 
metic, reading,  spelling  and  English  composition 
that  I  had  given  in  the  school  with  the  museum.  In 
commenting  on  the  grades  made  by  these  pupils  the 
teacher  of  the  first  school  made  a  statement  that  I 
think  is  full  of  educational  merit.     She  said :  "My 


2l8   THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

pupils  have  passed  better  tests  in  original  compo- 
sition writing  than  Catherine's  pupils  simply  because 
they  have  more  to  write  about.  Their  minds  have 
richer  contents.  They  have  seen,  touched,  handled 
and  mastered  so  many  of  the  things  about  which 
I  have  taught  them.  But  Catherine's  pupils  have 
merely  heard  of  a  good  many  things.  That  is  all. 
Their  minds  are  filled  with  inaccurate  imaginary 
conceptions  of  too  many  things  they  have  never 
seen." 

What  was  the  difference  between  these  two 
girls?  One  was  a  school-teacher,  the  other  a 
pretty  girl  teaching  school;  one  was  a  community 
leader,  the  other  a  boarder  in  the  community ;  one 
was  facing  problems  squarely  and  meeting  them  in 
her  own  original,  practical  way,  the  other  applying 
the  formal  practises  of  the  school-room  just  as  she 
had  inherited  them  from  the  teachers  who  taught 
her;  one  had  caught  the  community-service  idea  in 
education,  the  other  followed  the  letter  of  the  text- 
book and  was  blind  to  most  of  the  vital  needs  of 
the  people  she  had  pledged  herself  to  serve. 

Both  from  experience  as  a  country  teacher  my- 
self and  from  what  I  have  observed  among  country 
schools  taught  by  others,  I  am  taking  this  occasion 
to  recommend  the  museum  as  an  essential  part  of 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL    2IO, 

the  equipment  of  every  up-to-date  rural  school. 
Country  children  must  be  brCfught  into  closer 
and  more  intelligent  acquaintance  with  the  common- 
place things  about  them.  They  need  to  know  more 
about  things  in  the  country.  The  wild  flowers, 
busy  insects,  growing  field  crops,  and  even  the  dead 
fossils  embedded  in  the  rocks  by  the  roadside  are 
pregnant  with  truth  and  beauty  for  all  who  have 
an  intelligent  appreciation  of  them.  Concrete, 
illustrative  material  is  indispensable  to  the  success- 
ful initiation  of  the  child  into  the  beautiful  mysteries 
of  natural  science.  The  school  museum  offers  the 
best  means  of  making  this  material  convenient  and 
available  for  use  in  the  class-room. 

3.  The  Essentials  of  a  Rural-School  Museum. 
— Elaborate  physical  equipment  is  not  so  necessary 
for  teaching  elementary  science  if  the  teacher  knows 
how  to  organize  and  use  the  material  for  instruction 
that  nature  has  everywhere  so  generously  provided. 
The  keys  that  unlock  the  doors  to  scientific  truth 
are  in  abundance  on  every  country  hillside,  in  the 
meadow,  by  the  brook,  at  the  mill,  in  the  poultry 
yard,  at  the  dairy  barn,  and  at  every  other  point  in 
our  physical  environment,  if  teachers  only  knew 
better  how  to  recognize  them  and  use  them  intelli- 
gently.    Concrete,  illustrative  material  taken  fresh 


220    THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

from  the  fold  of  nature  is  often  preferable  to  highly 
polished  pieces  of  factory-made  apparatus.  High- 
priced,  complex  apparatus  sometimes  distracts  the 
mind  of  the  elementary  student  and  confuses  facts 
with  appearances.  Much  home-made  equipment  is 
highly  desirable  in  rural  and  village  schools.  The 
older  boys  will  make  many  pieces  of  simple  appara- 
tus, and  the  pupils  of  all  ages  will  assist  in  collect- 
ing such  a  museum  as  herewith  outlined  if  the 
teacher  will  only  explain  what  is  wanted  and  how  it 
is  to  be  used.  Such  equipment  is  inexpensive,  and 
the  work  of  making  and  collecting  it  is  highly 
educative. 

The  first  equipment  needed  is  a  place  to  pu\ 
things  while  they  are  not  in  use.  Mice  and  dust  will 
injure  many  valuable  specimens  if  a  closed  case  is^ 
not  provided  for  them.  All  specimens  should  be 
mounted,  labeled  and  arranged  so  that  they  may  be 
easily  found  when  wanted.  As  soon  as  the  teacher 
has  decided  on  the  topics  to  be  included  in  the  year's 
work,  she  should  make  notes  of  all  the  material 
needed  and  begin  collecting  accordingly.  Much  of 
the  material  will  have  to  be  collected  at  the  season 
when  it  is  available  and  preserved  for  future  use. 
The  pupils  will  do  most  of  the  work  if  the  teacher 
will  lead  the  way.     The  following  is  a  partial  list 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL    221 

of  the  material  that  can  be  collected  in  almost  any 
country  community : 

Common  Insects. — In  this  collection  it  is  well  to 
include  mounted  specimens  of  butterflies,  moths, 
beetles,  spiders,  grasshoppers,  dragon-flies,  bees  and 
wasps.  Secure  the  eggs,  larvae  and  complete  life- 
history  of  as  many  of  the  insects  as  possible  that 
are  injurious  to  man,  farm  animals,  gardens, 
orchards  and  field  crops.  These  should  include 
flies,  mosquitoes,  cattle  ticks,  blue  bugs,  squash 
bugs,  chinch  bugs,  sphinx  moths,  coddling  moths, 
borers,  Colorado  potato  beetles,  green  bugs,  boll- 
weevils,  granary  weevils.  Where  possible,  secure 
samples  of  the  destruction  done  by  these  insects. 
Both  the  larval  and  the  adult  forms  of  such  speci- 
mens as  grubworms,  cutworms  and  wireworms 
should  be  included.  (Put  captured  insects  in  gas- 
oline to  kill  them.)  Preserve  the  larval  forms  in 
five  per  cent,  formaline  solution.  Mount  the  adult 
specimens  on  pins  and  dry.  Put  them  in  closed 
cigar  boxes  and  fumigate  occasionally  with  carbon 
bisulphide  or  with  moth  balls  to  keep  parasites  from 
destroying  them.  (See  Farmer's  Bulletin  No.  606, 
Collection  and  Preservation  of  Insects  and  Other 
Material  for  Use  in  the  Study  of  Agricidture,  U.  S. 
Department  of  Agriculture,  Washington,  D.  C.) 


222    THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

Small  Animals. — The  pelts,  skulls  and  skeletons 
of  many  small  animals  can  be  easily  obtained.  The 
schoolboys  will  be  glad  to  assist  in  making  a  col- 
lection of  skulls  of  birds,  rodents  and  carniverous 
and  herbiverous  animals.  This  might  include  the 
skull  of  the  hawk,  crow,  pigeon,  partridge,  squirrel, 
rat,  rabbit,  cat,  dog,  sheep  and  goat.  Treat  all  pelts 
of  animals  with  a  dilute  solution  of  corrosive  sub- 
limate to  keep  the  parasites  from  injuring  them. 
(To  remove  the  flesh  from  the  skeleton  of  an  ani- 
mal, skin  the  carcass  and  remove  the  viscera  and 
larger  muscles  with  a  knife.  Then  boil  it  in  a  soapy 
solution  till  the  remaining  flesh  is  removed.  In  the 
case  of  small  animals  such  as  mice,  sparrows  or 
toads,  skin  them  and  place  the  carcasses  under  a 
wire  gauze  in  a  "farmer  ant"  bed  for  a  few  days. 
The  ants  will  remove  the  rest  of  the  flesh.) 

Grasses  and  Weeds. — Tied  in  small  uniform 
bundles :  rescue  grass,  fox  tail,  crab-grass,  Bermuda, 
wild  millet,  mesquite,  gramma  grass,  carpet  grass, 
Johnson  grass,  Soudan  grass,  and  other  varieties. 

Weeds  and  weed  seed:  cocklebur,  jimpson, 
tumble-weed,  thistle,  nettles,  bitter-weed,  blue-weed, 
sunflower,  tie  vines,  etc. 

Legumes. — Perennials  :  mesquite,  coffee  bean, 
locust,  cat  claw,  and  other  varieties. 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL   223 

Annuals:  Alfalfa,  sweet  clover,  bur  clover, 
vetches,  soy-beans,  velvet  beans,  field  peas,  peanuts 
with  vine,  etc.  Secure  specimens  of  vetch  and  al- 
falfa that  show  bacterial  nodules  adhering  to  roots. 

Cereals. — Corn :  Ears  of  different  types :  dent 
type,  flint  type,  soft  corn,  sweet  corn  and  popcorn. 
Ears  showing  proportion  of  corn  to  cob,  space  be- 
tween rows,  straight  rows,  well-filled  types, 
uniformity  of  circumference.  Ideal  stalk  with  ear, 
specimens  of  corn  smut,  corn  products,  etc. 

Wheat :  Selected  heads  of  native  varieties.  Mill 
products  in  small  bottles :  screenings,  wheat  ready 
to  grind,  middlings,  bran,  entire  wheat  flour. 

Oats :  Types  of  heads :  spreading  and  side. 
Varieties :  white,  black,  red,  gray.  Smutty  heads 
with  treatment  for  same. 

Barley :  Selected  heads  of  bearded  and  beardless 
types,  two-row  and  six-row  types. 

Grain  Sorghums :  Selected  heads  of  milo,  kafir 
and  feterita. 

Cotton  and  Cotton  Products. — Bolls,  stalks, 
leaves  and  samples  of  fibers  from  different  varie- 
ties. Fibers  of  different  lengths  mounted  side  by 
side.  Samples  of  the  standard  grades  of  cotton. 
Cotton  fiber  products.  Cotton-seed  products :  oil, 
cake,  meal,  hulls. 


224    THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

Fruits  and  Vegetables. — Collect  and  preserve 
tubers,  fruits  and  vegetables  in  glass  jars  in  two 
per  cent,  formaline  solution.  Make  an  extensive 
collection  of  southern  nuts.  Lay  special  emphasis 
on  the  pecan  by  securing  as  many  varieties  as  pos- 
sible. Collect  and  label  small  quantities  of  seed 
from  all  the  fruits  and  vegetables  grown  in  the 
locality. 

The  Dairy. — Pictures  and  models  of  ideal  dairy 
farms  and  sanitary  appliances  for  handling  milk  and 
other  dairy  products.  Preserved  specimens  of  cot- 
tage cheese,  American  cheese  and  Swiss  cheese. 
Petri  dishes  with  colonies  of  bacteria  from  impure 
milk,  cow-hairs  and  manure  particles.  If  the  Petri 
dishes  can  not  be  had  conveniently,  collect  pictures 
of  different  culture  media  in  which  bacterial  colonies 
have  been  grown. 

Rations  for  Farm  Animals. — Secure  a  few  large- 
size  glass  test-tubes  from  a  chemistry  laboratory. 
Make  a  collection  of  all  the  available  kinds  of  stock 
feed  that  are  locally  produced :  hay,  fodder,  silage, 
wheat  bran,  cotton-seed  meal,  cotton-seed  hulls, 
Indian  corn  and  grain  sorghums.  Get  the  formulae 
from  text-books  or  from  government  bulletins  for 
balanced  rations  for  beef  cattle,  laying  hens,  fatten- 
ing hogs  and  other  farm  animals.     Fill  test-tubes 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL    225 

according  to  these  formulas.  Keep  the  different 
feeds  in  the  test-tubes  separated  from  one  another 
by  partitions  made  of  thin  paper  wads  so  that  the 
proportion  of  each  feed  required  in  the  ration  can 
be  seen.  Assign  tubes  to  their  proper  place  in  the 
school  museum  so  they  will  be  ready  for  illustrative 
use  when  needed. 

Woods  of  Orchard  and  Forest  Trees. — Speci- 
mens of  wood  that  have  been  injured  by  fungous 
diseases,  borers  and  mistletoe.  Specimens  of  wood 
from  all  the  local  forest  trees  sawed  and  polished  so 
as  to  show  both  the  longitudinal  and  the  cross  sec- 
tions. (Forestry  in  Nature,  Farmer's  Bulletin  No. 
468,  U.  S.  Department  of  Agriculture,  Wash- 
ington, D.  C.) 

Geological  Fossils. — Many  of  the  sand  and 
limestone  strata  in  the  South  are  very  rich  in  marine 
fossils.  Shark's  teeth  and  crocodile  teeth,  and 
various  kinds  of  fossilized  marine  shells  can  be  found 
in  great  abundance  in  many  localities.  The  teeth, 
tusks  and  bones  of  the  mammoth  and  other  extinct 
land  animals  are  quite  common  in  many  parts  of 
Texas.  The  children  and  patrons  of  the  school 
will  take  great  interest  in  collecting  these  specimens 
and  bringing  them  to  the  schoolhouse  when 
encouraged  to  do  so.     As  many  different  kinds  of 


226    THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

native  ores  and  stones  as  possible  should  also  be 
gathered  and  brought  to  the  school  museum. 

Historical  Relics. — Stone  hatchets,  stone  arrow- 
heads, pipes,  pottery,  moccasins  and  other  Indian 
relics.  Coins,  postage  stamps,  curios,  ancient  doc- 
uments, colonial  household  articles  and  the  like 
might  very  appropriately  fall  in  this  collection. 

Soils  and  Fertilizers. — Samples  of  as  many  dif- 
ferent kinds  of  soils  and  commercial  fertilizers  as 
can  be  obtained. 

Pictures. — Collect  pictures  of  all  the  different 
kinds  and  types  of  farm  animals.  Good  pictures  of 
model  farms,  farm  conveniences,  dairy  barns,  and 
the  like  should  be  saved  for  the  school.  Many 
valuable  pictures  can  be  taken  from  the  Country 
Gentleman,  Farm  and  Ranch  and  other  farm  papers. 
All  good  pictures  bearing  on  any  of  the  school  sub- 
jects should  be  saved  and  put  where  they  can  be 
found  when  needed. 


CHAPTER  XIV 
A  Standard  Rural  School 

i.  What  Is  a  Standard  School? — In  the  indus- 
trial world,  the  standardization  of  machines  and  the 
consequent  standardization  of  products  have 
wrought  miracles  in  the  efficiency  and  economy  of 
production.  But  before  there  could  be  a  standard- 
ization of  products,  the  machines  employed  in  pro- 
duction had  first  to  be  standardized.  For  instance, 
Nut  No.  15  on  the  new  Liberty  Motor  is  just  like 
Nut  No.  15  on  every  other  Liberty  Motor.  It  will 
fit  and  fill  the  function  for  which  it  was  intended 
on  any  of  them.  But  this  convenience  and  economy 
is  possible  only  as  the  result  of  machines  designed 
to  turn  out  uniform  parts. 

This  same  principle  has  been  carried  into  the 
school  business.  The  idea  is  that,  before  the  sixth- 
grade  pupil  can  hold  his  own  and  stand  on  equal 
terms  with  sixth-grade  pupils  from  any  other  school, 
there  must  first  be  a  standardization  of  teachers, 
courses  of  study,  equipment  and  working  machinery 
in  the  entire  school  system.  Within  certain  flex- 
ible limitations  this  is  all  good  and  well.  But 
227 


228    THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

standards  that  are  too  rigid  and  unyielding  lead  to 
grave  injustices  in  education,  for  not  all  children 
have  the  same  tastes  and  endowments,  just  as  square 
pegs  do  not  fit  into  round  holes.  Yet,  it  would  be 
exceedingly  difficult  to  conduct  a  system  of  public 
schools  without  some  prescribed  requirements. 

Without  standards,  comparisons  are  impossible. 
One  of  the  best  means  of  getting  a  school  to  im- 
prove itself  is  by  comparing  it  with  other,  schools 
similarly  environed.  Numerous  score-cards  have 
been  devised  for  this  purpose  during  recent  years. 
But  a  perfect  score-card  is  an  impossibility.  Some 
of  the  factors  in  a  school,  such  as  the  personality 
of  the  teacher  and  the  spirit  of  the  pupils,  are  qual- 
itative and  can  not  be  measured  by  quantitative 
standards. 

Above  all  other  things,  a  practical  score-card  for 
a  country  school  must  be  definite  and  concrete.  It 
will  fail  in  its  purpose  if  its  rubrics  are  abstract  and 
general.  Country  children,  country-school  trustees, 
and  most  country  teachers  do  the  greater  amount 
of  their  thinking  in  concrete  terms.  Their  conver- 
sations are  usually  about  tangible  objects  in  their 
environment.  They  are  not  concerned  so  much 
about  theories,  concepts  and  principles  as  with 
things  they  can  see  and  touch. 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL    229 

The  score-card  herewith  submitted  will,  no 
doubt,  receive  its  full  share  of  criticism  from  the 
educational  theorist.  In  fact,  its  imperfections  are 
so  numerous  that  it  will  be  positively  painful  to  the 
astute  idealist.  But  for  the  teacher  on  the  job  deal- 
ing with  actual  conditions  and  honestly  endeavoring 
to  improve  them,  I  trust  that  it  will  be  of  some 
practical  service. 

The  numerical  values  assigned  to  each  of  the 
rubrics  are  arbitrary  and  subject  to  any  change  that 
the  teacher  or  the  superintendent  may  see  fit  to 
make.  In  fact,  this  score-card  is  merely  a  sugges- 
tive one,  inviting  revision  and  adaptation  to  the 
special  needs  of  any  rural  locality. 

Score-card  for  a  Rural  School 
(A  total  of  1,000  points  is  a  ioo  per  cent,  school) 

I.     Sanitation  and  Hygiene: 

Water  supply :  well,  cistern,  spring  or  creek 
(well  ii  points,  cistern  9  points,  spring  2 
points,  creek  o  points) 11 

Well  at  schoolhouse  or  hydrant  in  school  yard     8 

Pump  in  well  (Scores  same  for  running  hydrant 
water)    8 

Drinking     facilities:     bubbling     fountains,     12 


23O    THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

points;  hydrants  and  individual  cups,  10 
points ;  individual  cups  and  common  bucket,  2 
points;  common  cup  and  common  bucket,  o 

points    12 

Two  clean,   fly-proof,  sanitary  toilets,  not  less 

than  thirty  yards  apart  and  not  defaced.  ...  12 
Jacketed   stoves,   properly  installed,   and   neatly 

polished    11 

Thermometer    3 

Clean  floors   6 

Clean  walls  and  clean  furniture 6 

Dustless  crayon    3 

Oiled  dust  cloth   3 

Slate  or  hyloplate  blackboard  with  chalk  trough 

and  dustless  erasers 6 

Sweeping  compound  or  oiled  floors 6 

Window  space  equal  to  one-sixth  of  floor  space  8 
Windows  grouped  and  seats  arranged  so  light 

does  not  come  directly  into  pupils'  eyes 5 

Windows  and  doors  screened 5 

Window  shades,  adjustable  from  the  top 5 

Sanitary   cloak-rooms    4 

Bathing    facilities :    lavoratories,    wash    basins, 

individual  towels  and  mirror 8 

Place   for  eating  lunches 4 

Sanitary  shelves  for  lunch  baskets 4 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL    23 1 

Shoe  scrapers  and  rugs  for  cleaning  shoes ....     4 


Total    142 

II.  Exterior  Equipment: 

Yard  neatly  fenced,  having  good  gates  or  stiles  14 

Yard  clean  and  attractive 14 

Trees,  flowers,  shrubs  and  walks 14 

Seats  in  shade 8 

Place  to  eat  lunches :  arbor 8 

As  much  as  four  acres  of  land 11 

Grounds  well  drained 11 

Playground  coated  with  sod,  sand  or  gravel  so 

as  to  prevent  mud  during  rain 14 

School  garden    14 

Baseball  court    8 

Tennis  court 8 

Basketball  court 8 

Swings,  seesaws,  horizontal  bars,  flag-pole  and 

sand  pile    11 

Total    143 

III.  Buildings : 

Wood,  stone,  stucco,  or  brick  (wood,  9  points, 

Stone,  stucco  or  brick,  14  points) 14 

In  good  repair  (if  wood,  well  painted) 1 1 


22,2    THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

Attractive    1 1 

Window-panes  clean  and  not  broken 15 

Windows  properly  grouped 15 

Main  light  on  left  of  pupils 15 

No  light  in  front  of  pupils 15 

Clean,   well-ventilated  cloak-rooms 15 

Sixteen  square  feet  or  more  of  floor  space  per 

child    15 

Teacher's  home    17 


Total    143 

IV.     Interior  Equipment: 

Single  desks  of  three  sizes  (all  desks  in  each  row 

of  the  same  size) 12 

Teacher's  desk  and  chair 11 

Clock   7 

Twenty-five  linear  feet  of  hyloplate  blackboard, 
properly   installed,    with   good   chalk    rail   in 

each  room    12 

Dictionaries,  maps,  globes  and  charts 12 

Laboratory :  elementary  equipment  for  teaching 
agriculture,    domestic    science    and    manual 

training    11 

Museum:  collections  of  seeds,  plants,  fossils,  etc.   12 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL    233 

Library   worth   fifty   dollars  or   more   in   good 

book-case 1 1 

Good  collection  of  government  bulletins 10 

Auditorium  equipped  with  stage  and  curtain.  .  .  10 

Piano  or  Victrola 1 1 

Clean  paper  on  walls  or  walls  properly  tinted .  .  8 

Pot  flowers  and  pictures 8 

Gas  or  electric  lights  for  auditorium 8 

Total    143 

V.  Extension  Activities : 

Parent-teacher's  association    22 

Well  executed  home  project  work 17 

Young  people's  reading  circle 17 

Musical  organization   17 

Literary  society   15 

Public  lectures    15 

Boys'  and  girls'  industrial  clubs 19 

School  exhibits  and  community  fairs 21 

Total    143 

VI.  Teachers : 

All  teachers  holding  first-grade  certificates  or 

certificates  of  higher  grade 28 


234    THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

All  teachers  from  state  normal  schools  or  first- 
class    colleges    28 

No  teacher  with  less  than  three  years  of  teach- 
ing experience 28 

All  teachers  that  have  been  employed  in  same 
school  for  three  years  or  more 28 

No  teacher  with  more  than  forty  pupils  in  schools 
with  two  or  more  teachers,  and  not  more  than 
twenty-five  pupils  in  schools  with  only  one 
teacher    28 

Total    140 

VII.     Character  and  Scope  of  Work: 

Well-adjusted  daily  program 13 

Open    with    music 13 

Following  state  course  of  study 13 

Supplementary  readers    13 

Classes  in  agriculture    13 

Domestic  science  in  school 13 

Manual   training    13 

School  term  of  eight  months  or  more 13 

Daily  attendance  of  not  less  than  85  per  cent,  of 

all  pupils  actually  enrolled  in  school 13 

Plays  and  games  well  taught  and  well  supervised  13 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL    235 

Attitude  of  pupils :  helpfulness,  confidence,  co- 
operation        14 


Total 


144 


THOUGHT  QUESTIONS 

1.  In  a  community  that  is  trying  to  improve  its 
schools,  what  would  be  the  effect  upon  the  pupils,  pa- 
trons and  trustees  if  the  principal  of  the  school  should 
make  use  of  a  score-card  and  publish  the  grades 
scored  by  the  school  at  the  end  of  each  month?  Do 
you  know  of  a  community  that  is  perfectly  satisfied 
with  the  physical  equipment  of  its  schools?  Would 
such  a  community  be  satisfied  if  it  were  fully  conscious 
of  how  it  compares  with  some  of  its  more  enterprising 
neighbors  ? 

2.  Would  it  be  well  for  a  county  superintendent  to 
score  every  school  he  visits  and  leave  duplicate  copies 
of  the  scores  made  with  the  trustees  and  teachers? 


CHAPTER  XV 
Larger  School  Units  in  the  Country 

i.  The  One-Teacher  School. — We  have  the 
one-teacher  school.  It  has  been  a  necessity.  It 
always  will  be.  There  are  three  conditions  justify- 
ing its  existence  :  ( i )  sparsely  settled  communities, 
(2)  isolated  districts  in  river  bends  and  enclosed 
mountain  valleys,  (3)  districts  having  central  high 
schools  with  small  schools  for  little  children  of  the 
lower  grades.  The  small  school  is  not  necessarily 
a  poor  school.  But  under  conditions  other  than 
those  mentioned,  the  small  school  has  long  since 
outlived  its  greatest  usefulness. 

2.  The  Poor  Attendance  in  Small  Country 
Schools. — The  commonest  of  all  the  objections 
against  consolidation  is  that  it  removes  schools  so 
far  from  some  homes  that  not  all  the  children  of 
school  age  can  attend.  At  first  thought,  this  appears 
to  be  a  valid  reason,  but  upon  investigation  it  does 
not  prove  so.  The  facts  are  quite  to  the  contrary. 
Consolidation  tends  to  improve  attendance.  Four 
years  ago  it  was  found  in  one  hundred  cases  of 
consolidation  in  nineteen  Texas  counties  that  ninety- 

236 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL    237 

seven  per  cent,  showed  an  increase  in  attendance, 
and  seventy-seven  per  cent,  reported  better  teaching. 
The  New  Dixon  Consolidated  School  in  Collin 
County,  as  I  found  it,  while  conducting  a  rural 
school  survey  there  in  19 14,  is  a  good  example.  It 
was  formed  by  the  union  of  Old  Dixon  with  the 
Hopewell  School  and  two-thirds  of  the  Richards 
District.  The  average  daily  attendance  of  all  the 
pupils  enrolled  in  these  three  one-room  schools  the 
year  before  the  consolidation  was  forty-five  and 
six-tenths  per  cent.  The  average  daily  attend- 
ance of  the  pupils  enrolled  in  the  new  consoli- 
dated school  the  next  year  was  sixty-five  and  six- 
tenths  per  cent.  It  has  been  my  observation  that 
pupils  do  not  mind  a  reasonably  long  distance  if 
there  is  an  attractive  school  at  the  other  end  of 
the  road. 

3.  The  Cost  of  Small  Schools— In  Collin 
County  I  found  from  the  teachers'  annual  reports 
that  the  per  capita  cost  on  daily  attendance  for 
twenty-six  one-room  country  schools  was  thirty- 
one  and  two-tenths  per  cent,  higher  than  the 
per  capita  cost  on  daily  attendance  for  McKinney, 
the  county-seat  town.  This  difference  in  cost  was 
due  to  the  difference  in  attendance.  The  smaller 
the  daily  attendance,  the  greater  the  per  capita  cost 


238    THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

for  those  who  do  attend.  But  this  wastefulness  of 
finance,  which  is  a  quantitative  thing  that  can  be 
easily  measured,  is  possibly  not  so  great  as  the  waste 
of  brain  power,  which  can  not  be  measured.  There 
is  a  great  educational  waste  as  well  as  a  great  fi- 
nancial waste  in  the  poorly  attended,  poorly  taught, 
small  school. 

Advocates  of  consolidation  sometimes  hazard 
the  statement  that  consolidation  reduces  the  total 
cost  of  school  maintenance.  That  is  not  necessarily 
true,  though  it  does  usually  reduce  the  daily 
cost  per  pupil  through  increased  attendance.  Its 
economy  does  not  lie  in  the  expenditure  of  less 
money.  It  lies  in  the  expenditure  of  more  money 
to  better  advantage.  It  gives  more  for  each  dollar 
invested. 

4.  The  Meaning  of  Consolidation. — Consoli- 
dation brings  to  pupils  the  inspiration  that  increased 
numbers  give.  It  widens  acquaintanceship,  stim- 
ulates competition,  develops  school  loyalty,  encour- 
ages interscholastic  rivalry  and  makes  way  for  such 
school  and  community  activities  as  organized 
athletics,  debating  teams,  dramatic  clubs  and  the 
like.  It  enjoys  better  trained  teachers,  better  equip- 
ment, longer  class  periods  and  fewer  grades  to  the 
teacher    than    are    possible    without    consolidation. 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL    239 

Consolidation  brings  together  into  one  school  unit 
an  aggregation  of  wealth  sufficiently  large  to  guar- 
antee adequate  school  finances.  This  makes  it 
possible  to  have  better  buildings,  better  libraries  and 
better  general  equipment. 

5.  A  Square  Deal  for  the  Country  Child. — 
Country  boys  and  girls  have  not  had  as  good  oppor- 
tunities as  city  children.  High-school  privileges 
have  been  denied  to  most  of  them.  This  result  has 
been  due  to  teachers  that  are  immature  and  not  prop- 
erly trained,  to  short  school  terms,  to  buildings  that 
are  poor,  insanitary  and  ill-equipped,  to  inadequate 
finances  and  poor  supervision,  and  to  an  effort  to 
imitate  what  town  schools  are  doing- 

The  twentieth-century  country  school  with  more 
teachers  and  better  equipment  is  beginning  to  resent 
the  idea  of  being  a  poor  example  of  a  town  school. 
It  is  departing  from  urban  ideals  and  developing 
character  and  individuality  of  its  own.  It  is  stand- 
ing for  more  than  the  mere  advancement  of  children 
through  a  graded  course.  It  is  not  content  with 
dealing  only  with  that  portion  of  education  that  is 
locked  up  in  the  mysteries  of  books.  Its  deepest 
concern  is  the  enrichment  of  rural  attractions  and 
the  preparation  of  people  to  live  happily  and  use- 
fully in  the  midst  of  rural  surroundings. 


24O    THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

6.  How  to  Make  a  Consolidation. — Since  I 
began  this  chapter  a  woman  from  DeWitt  County 
called  and  asked  me  how  I  would  manage  the  con- 
solidating of  some  schools  in  which  she  was  inter- 
ested down  there.  The  best  that  I  could  do  for  her, 
however,  was  to  tell  her  that  I  did  not  know.  I 
have  given  assistance  in  effecting  many  consolida- 
tions in  Texas,  but  I  have  never  seen  any  two  cases 
exactly  alike  or  that  could  be  handled  by  the  same 
methods.  Each  case  is  in  a  class  to  itself,  requir- 
ing the  deftest  sort  of  manipulation.  For  this 
reason,  it  is  difficult  to  lay  down  any  very  general 
rules. 

Much  always  depends  on  how  the  campaign  is 
launched  and  who  takes  the  lead  in  it.  One  legiti- 
mate question  always  is,  Who  is  the  most  logical  and 
most  acceptable  person  or  group  of  persons  to  steer 
the  movement  in  this  community?  With  the  wrong 
person  in  the  lead,  defeat  is  usually  inevitable.  The 
manner  of  launching  a  campaign  must  always  be 
determined  by  local  conditions.  The  method  em- 
ployed in  the  case  mentioned  in  the  second  chapter 
of  this  book  was,  in  all  probability,  the  very  best 
one  that  could  have  been  hit  upon  for  uniting  those 
five  small  schools.  Under  other  conditions,  it 
might  be  thoroughly  impractical. 


THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL    24I 

Again,  I  have  always  found  it  well  to  avoid  the 
use  of  the  word  "consolidate"  as  much  as  possible. 
In  fact,  I  have  never  used  it  in  my  life  in  discussing 
better  schools  with  an  audience  or  with  a  committee 
where  a  case  of  enlarging  a  school  district  was  being 
considered.  It  is  a  word  that  has  been  overworked, 
and  one  that  often  arouses  resentment,  whereas  the 
same  idea  set  forth  in  other  terms  would  be  perfectly 
acceptable.  The  safest  guides  for  conducting  a 
campaign  for  the  union  of  two  or  more  school  dis- 
tricts into  one  are  judicious  common  sense,  tact, 
diplomacy  and  a  sound  knowledge  of  human  nature. 

THOUGHT  QUESTIONS 

1.  State  the  three  reasons  justifying  the  existence 
of  the  one-room  school. 

2.  Account  for  the  poor  attendance  in  most  of  the 
small  country  schools.  Why  does  consolidation  usu- 
ally improve  attendance? 

3.  A  man  once  said:  "The  small,  poorly-attended 
school  in  the  country  is  the  most  expensive  institution 
in  our  educational  system."  Upon  what  grounds 
might  this  statement  be  defended?  Show  that  the 
waste  of  brain  power  is  the  greatest  waste  sustained 
by  the  small,  poorly-taught  country  school.  Show 
that  the  economy  of  consolidation  does  not  lie  in  the 
expenditure  of  less  money,  but  in  the  expenditure  of 
more  money  to  better  advantage. 


242    THE     TWENTIETH-CENTURY     RURAL     SCHOOL 

4.  State  ten  advantages  the  consolidated  school  has 
over  the  one-teacher  school. 

5.  Show  that  country  children  have  poorer  school 
opportunities  than  city  children.  Many  country 
schools  are  modeled  after  town  schools.  They  are 
poor  examples  of  town  schools  moved  to  the  country. 
Wherein  does  the  fallacy  of  this  practise  lie?  Why 
must  the  country  school  have  character  and  individ- 
uality of  its  own  in  order  to  meet  country  needs? 

6.  Why  is  it  so  difficult  to  lay  down  a  code  of 
rules  by  which  a  county  superintendent  might  be 
guided  in  the  work  of  rural-school  consolidation? 
Why  is  it  often  best  not  to  use  the  term  "consolidate"  ? 
Name  some  types  of  persons  who  would  be  unde- 
sirable as  local  leaders  in  a  school-consolidation 
movement. 

REFERENCES 

Foght,  The  American  Rural  School,  Macmillan 
Company,  New  York. 

Kern,  Among  Rural  Schools,  pages  240-281,  Ginn 
&  Co.,  Boston. 

THE    END 


This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped,  below 

MAY  4*AY6-1957 

JUN  2  5  195& 


^er  1 1  iq29 

7   I'Qtn 


I  3  1931 


JUL  7      19-i 


MAY  2  3  1932' 
JUN  8  *  1932 


JfEB 


*  4  1933 


AV  *  o  ^ 
2  9 


I? :1  6  t93ff 


OCT  2  9  1962 

NOV  231962 

REC'D  in-URl 


II    /%       JUL 


I»1<IW 


JO 


off  **  *7 


FEB  16 


■»       * 


587  0 


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